Supervisors need sufficient process visibility
Aliases: process observability · supervisory visibility · event-based display
What it is
Process visibility for supervision lets a supervisor know the current step, decisive conditions, deviation, and likely next event without continuously viewing raw data. It is causal observability, not more gauges and video.
Why it happens
Sparse state updates maintain a task model. Outcome-only displays require reconstruction after failure; all-data displays bury change. Hierarchical aggregation compresses nominal work into milestones and elevates constraint violation, low confidence, and policy change as events.
Studying it
Outcome-only, raw-data, and layered event displays can compare state understanding, prediction, diagnosis, gaze, workload, and intervention under multitasking and long runs. Static questionnaire performance is insufficient; timely action matters.
Where it stops holding
Granularity follows role and risk. Privacy, security, and bandwidth limit transparency. Prediction desynchronised from the plan creates false awareness, so update time and uncertainty matter.
Applying it
- Organise goal–stage–action levels, showing current stage, constraint state, next event, and timestamp by default.
- Elevate deviation, policy switch, and lost observation, with causal drill-down.
- Under distraction, probe now–why–next, then inject anomalies and measure diagnosis and action.