GHF 2014 - International Workshop on A GUIDE TO HUMAN FACTORS INTEGRATION IN SYSTEMS DESIGN

The design and development of complex systems has a number of key features including: long development times; many components and sub-components; ‘roles’ rather than ‘people’; iterative ‘top down’ processes as the system concept develops; no ‘reverse gear’; and underpinning and constraint by complex contractual and legal processes. The challenge to systems designers is to ensure that knowledge of HF&E is properly integrated into the systems engineering process. Typically, design teams do not have a full-time HF&E specialist in ‘role’ throughout the process and much of the existing HF&E knowledge is not in a form that is readily usable by designers. Therefore, formal project management tools are needed to identify the critical decision points for HF&E input and to specify HF&E requirements. Three critical points for HF&E input in the design of any complex system are: requirements specification; function analysis and allocation; and HF&E acceptance testing. All are underpinned by functional thinking ? focussing on ‘what’ needs to be done, rather than ‘how’ to do it. The main steps and strategies needed to integrate HF&E will be described with examples.