Premium
A Human Factors Integration Capability Maturity Model
Author(s) -
SherwoodJones Brian,
Earthy Jonathan,
Bowler Yvonne,
Taylor Robert,
Forster Melanie
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.1999.tb00341.x
Subject(s) - operability , vendor , capability maturity model , risk analysis (engineering) , process (computing) , adaptability , systems engineering , computer science , quality (philosophy) , quality assurance , process management , engineering , engineering management , software , software engineering , operations management , business , ecology , philosophy , external quality assessment , epistemology , marketing , biology , programming language , operating system
Vendor capability assessment is a vital risk‐reduction component of pre‐contract award on major projects, and process improvement has become recognised as an important development in improving productivity and quality. This has become established for Software Capability Evaluation, using Capability Maturity Models. Similar approaches have been developed for systems engineering and are starting to see application. The integration of human factors into systems development is now seen as essential for reasons of manning, safety and operability. The Human Factors discipline has matured and there are now stable standards, and a consensus over the processes involved appears to have developed. However, the means of ensuring Integration into system development are less well evolved. A capability assessment scheme for human factors would extend existing software and system engineering capability evaluations to give assurance that complex systems, such as command centres, will be operable on delivery. This would be particularly valuable because human adaptability and variability pose difficulty for reliance on hard requirements. Traditional specification and test against pre‐defined acceptance criteria is inadequate to assure operability in complex systems. Contractors and/or partners in the development need to provide assurance of their ability to do human factors work within this dynamic project environment and deliver sub‐systems which integrate into the worksystem. This paper summarises the state of the art in Human Factors process models and capability evaluation, sets out the requirements for successful HFI capability evaluation, and discusses a proposed implementation strategy. The presentation will review the requirements for such a scheme and present the development and implementation strategy for a general‐purpose Human Factors Integration Capability Maturity Model.