This paper reports the status of an ongoing project to develop a macro model describing the decisions involved in developing training equipment. The purpose of the model is to assist managers in making such decisions by providing information concerning the tradeoffs between the cost and effectiveness of training provided by different configurations and choices of equipment. The goals of the current phase of the study were to determine the feasibility of collecting data to empirically test the model and turn it into a practical tool to be used in making decisions relating to trainer design and development, and to perform a preliminary test of the model.

Results of the field data collection led to the conclusion that the data necessary to test the model can be obtained. However, such measures need to be refined before the model can be turned into a practical tool. The preliminary test of the model performed in this study resulted in no major modifications of the model.