TEMPO Software Modifications for SEVER Evaluation

In this thesis, we present a software package update facilitating the evaluation of the Systems Engineering Value Equation with Risk (SEVER) using the TEMPO Military Planning Game originally developed by General Electric in the 1960's. Currently it is used by Naval Postgraduate School to train future military decision makers in making critical resource allocation decisions. The intent of this development facilitates creating a software decision tool adaptable to different software-based resource allocation models such that decision makers are presented with customized, relevant information for both 'satisfaction' and 'optimization' decisions along with a probability of successful outcome prior to executing the decision and observing the effects. The software package development (identified as TEMPO Version 3) involved porting software code from C++ into Visual Basic.NET, integrating MATLAB code for numerical strategy execution, and allowing for future strategy generation and statistical analysis to compare against SEVER-predicted outcomes. SEVER is the algorithm proposed by Langford and Hyuhn (2006) that facilitates Systems Engineering decision making. TEMPO Version 3 is the particular software application proposed to evaluate the SEVER algorithm once it is developed into a software package. SEVER was not implemented; however, it was considered during the development of the updated software package. The original document contains color images.