Human Factors Engineering. A Self-Paced Text, Lessons 21-25,
Abstract
Lessons 21 will present the big picture of systems acquisition as well as the specific contributions made by the Human Factors Engineering (HFE) community to the acquisition process. The human engineer is fundamentally concerned with making sure that the best possible designs are provided within the constraints of time, money, and technical capability. The level of human factors input to systems acquisition is not determined by the cost of the system alone, but by the extent to which the system needs to be human engineered. Lesson 22 will define exactly what systems analysis means and show why knowledge of it is so important to a human factors specialist. It will also introduce some of the more common techniques used when conducting a system analysis. In addition, some of the road blocks that can be expected to be encountered will be presented along with ways to avoid. them. The purposes of systems analysis can be neatly packaged into five general areas: Scheduling, Identifyilng limilting factors, Establishing system performance criteria, Identifying and explaining various design options, Evaluating systems. Lesson 23 will present the history of task analysis, what its aims are, what factors go into a task analysis, and the uses of task analysis. Lessons 24 of the Human Factors Engineering Course will finish the topic of task analysis. One of the purposes of task analysis is to ensure that all the human performance requirements for a new man-machine system have been identified. Lessons 25 will discuss some of the practical issues that arise in cost/benefit trade-offs. This lesson should provide some insights into an important area where system and task analysis skills are typically put to use.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA132560
Entities
People
- Jerry Hedge
- Judah Katznelson
- Kevin Mcelroy
- Ruth Brogan
Organizations
- Human Engineering Laboratory