Next-Generation Human Systems Integration Testing: Model-Based HSI in Space Wargaming Software Development

This effort applied Model-Based Human Systems Integration (MBHSI) to evaluate operator performance and workload within True Anomaly’s Mosaic space-wargaming software—a novel application of MBHSI to a digital space-operations platform. Mosaic’s Range application served as the System Under Test (SUT), and the test objective was to assess system-level human performance characteristics under realistic scenario-construction tasks. MBHSI is derived from Kondraske’s General Systems Performance Theory (GSPT), which models any performing system in terms of measurable resources and corresponding task resource-demand functions. The MBHSI framework applies GSPT and Nonlinear Causal Resource Analysis (NCRA) to the human subsystem, quantifying performance in terms of Basic Performance Resources (BPRs) and modeling the supply–demand relationship between human resource availability and task resource demand. This relationship provides objective workload at the human subsystem level. Forty participants completed three Mosaic scenario-construction tasks of increasing complexity. Performance (time, accuracy, navigation, and repeatability) was normalized into task scores and modeled against each participant’s Individual Performance Capacity Envelope (iPCE), a 36-dimension BPR profile. MBHSI successfully predicted operator performance, identified limiting human performance resources, and quantified resource-demand thresholds across performance levels. NASA Task Load Index (TLX) workload ratings showed high inter-individual variability and weak correlation with objective performance, highlighting limitations of subjective workload methods. Results demonstrate strong prediction accuracy (percent agreement = 0.83) and robust classification validity (Cramer’s V = 0.67, df = 4). MBHSI provided configuration-level workload profiles differentiating simple and advanced Mosaic tasks, offering diagnostic insight into the SUT’s performance economics. This work establishes MBHSI as a quantitative test methodology for human-system evaluation in emerging space-operations software.