Evaluation of the COTMAN Program: Focus Group and Quantitative Survey Methods

COTMAN system has been used for in-season monitoring of plant development and making end-of-season management decisions based on maturity of the last effective boll population. This research effort sought feedback from cotton consultants on the usability of COTMAN software. Results will be used to help guide future direction of agricultural systems research and software development. Cotton consultants representative of their peers were identified and six were recruited to each of two focus groups: COTMAN users and COTMAN non-users. The focus group meetings were conducted by project investigators in conjunction with the Cotton Consultants Conference at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences, New Orleans, on January 4, 2010. Each session lasted approximately 1.5 hours. Although considerable knowledge regarding reasons for non-use of the system was ascertained, the leading barrier to use of the COTMAN system was that the amount of time necessary was prohibitive.  However, both focus groups found that NAWF and heat unit tracking is beneficial information for cotton production management whether or not used with COTMAN software. Some of the specific enhancements that groups requested for COTMAN were related more with robust handheld computer equipment than the COTMAN system or software. In addition to evaluation of the COTMAN program, this research reports on the methodology used to evaluate the development of agricultural software using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods. Research was sponsored by the Cotton Incorporated Agricultural Research Group.