Wargaming for assessment

Authors:

  • Erik Nordstrand
  • Patrik Thoren

Publish date: 2021-01-21

Report number: FOI-R--5001--SE

Pages: 16

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • Adjudication
  • Evaluation
  • Game
  • Operational analysis
  • Wargame

Abstract

This report presents the recommendations and thoughts, of a group of experienced analysts at FOI, on games in support of evaluation. The text shall be viewed as a summary of discussions rather than a handbook on games for evaluation. From a methodological point of view, the report proposes a separation of the gaming and the evaluation step. A game series is suggested with a series of knowledge building games followed by one or several games dedicated to producing the knowledge needed for a subsequent evaluation of the object or objects in question. It is in this context important to emphasise that there is no evaluation-game but rather one or several games producing information for later evaluation. Hence, the actual evaluation takes place after the games. Not during them.