A Storyboard Tool to Assist Concept of Operations Development

We describe progress in developing a software tool to help create, communicate, and refine concept of operations (ConOps) information. Information found in a ConOps document is central to our tool. ConOps documents are written in the end user's language, describing how the proposed system should support the users' tasks. While there are some helpful documents prescribing ConOps format, there is little direct assistance to express the concept of operations. We describe a tool to help author this information, integrate it with storyboard sketches, refine it through interaction with other stakeholders, and finally export the information in a form directly usable by developers. We have developed a demonstration prototype that performs the core functions of ConOps definition. We discuss the results of this prototyping effort and plans for expanding the tool functions. We plan to refine the tool through experience with ongoing projects so that it supports system concept development.