CONDUCT HUMAN FACTORS ANALYSIS

Purpose

An investment analysis is conducted to determine the most advantageous solution to an approved mission need.  In general, it involves development of operational requirements, conduct of a market survey to determine industry capabilities, analysis of various alternative approaches, and a determination of what the FAA can afford.  The purpose of human factors in the investment analysis process is to ensure that:

• Human-system capabilities and limitations are properly reflected in the system requirements
• Human-system performance characteristics and their associated cost, benefits, and risks assist in deciding among alternatives (especially since lifecycle operation and support costs are often largely dependent upon personnel-related costs)
• Human-system performance risks are appropriately addressed in program baselines

“How to”

The investment analysis (IA) must identify for each alternative the full range of human factors and interfaces (e.g., cognitive, organizational, physical, functional, environmental) necessary to achieve an acceptable level of performance for operating, maintaining, and supporting the system in concert with meeting the system’s functional requirements.  The analysis should provide information on what is known and unknown about the human-system performance risks in meeting minimum system performance requirements.

Human factors considerations that are relevant to meeting system performance and functional requirements during the IA include:

• Human performance, such as human capabilities and limitations, workload, function allocation, hardware and software design, decision aids, environmental constraints, and team versus individual performance
• Training (e.g., length of training, training effectiveness, retraining, training devices and facilities, and embedded training)
• Staffing, such as staffing levels, team composition, and organizational structure
• Personnel selection, such as minimum skill levels, special skills, and experience levels
• Safety and health, such as hazardous materials or conditions, system or equipment design, operational or procedural constraints, biomedical influences, protective equipment, and required warnings and alarms.

The human factors support to the Investment Analysis Team follows the general process flow for Investment Analyses which includes the investment analysis planning, requirements definition, alternative solution identification and analysis, affordability assessment, acquisition program baseline development, and support for the investment analysis reporting, briefing, and decision.  Support is provided by a designated, qualified Human Factors Coordinator (HFC). 

General Role of the Human Factors Coordinator

The Human Factors Coordinator on the Investment Analysis Team provides the support for the integration of human factors engineering in the investment analysis phase of system development and acquisition.  The HFC helps the Investment Analysis Team to initiate, structure, direct, and monitor their human factors efforts.

The HFC serves with IA Team to identify, define, analyze, and report on human performance and human factors engineering considerations to ensure they are incorporated in investment decisions.  Typical human-system performance and human factors engineering studies and analyses conducted, sponsored, or supported by the HFC include requirements analyses, baselines performance studies, trade-off determinations, alternative analyses, lifecycle cost estimates, cost-benefit analyses, risk assessments, supportability assessments, and operational suitability assessments. 

The HFC helps identify system specific and aggregate technical human factors engineering problems and issues that might otherwise go undetected for their obscurity, complexity, or elaborate inter relationships.  The human performance considerations are developed for staffing levels, operator and maintainer skills, training strategies, human-computer interface, human engineering design features, safety and health issues, and workload and operational performance considerations in procedures and other human-system interfaces. 

The HFC facilitates the establishment of the necessary tools, techniques, methods, databases, metrics, measures, criteria, and lessons learned to conduct human factors analyses in investment analysis activities. 

The HFC provides technical quality control of human factors products to the IA Team, participates in special working groups, assists in team reviews, helps prepare IA documentation, and collaborates on technical exchanges among government and contractor personnel.   

Steps

Step 1 Formulate HF-Input to Investment Analysis Plan

Step 2: Estimate HF of Cost, Benefit, and Risk

Step 3: Alternative Solution Identification and Analysis

Checklist

Links

Role of the Human Factors Coordinator