Recent hardware developments of automated, high speed, portable X-ray diffraction instrumentation have not yet resulted in widespread use of the technique in industry despite its potentials. We suggest that these hardware developments require an equivalent development in the training of instrument operators in order to guarantee the integrity of the resulting data, as well as to enhance the understanding of such materials characterization data. The hurdle to date is the variety of skills necessary in a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines and which are not commonly found in a single individual. We suggest that a computer-based system, integrating visualization tools, knowledge bases and analysis-capabilities and which is focused on the operator performance can provide an efficient solution to this problem, as it changes the enactment of the stress determination work process. / Master of Science