Human Factors for Engineers
This volume introduces readers to the subject of human factors and provides practical and pragmatic advice to assist engineers in designing interactive systems that are safer, more secure and easier to use.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Human Factors for Engineers
8.5: Qualitative human error analysis
8.5 Qualitative human error analysis
As discussed in Section 8.2, a comprehensive modelling of the types of failure likely to occur in human interactions in systems is probably the most important aspect of assessing and reducing the human contribution to risk. Qualitative human error analysis is a set of tools designed to support the modelling activity. The qualitative analysis performed in HIRAM involves the following techniques:
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Task analysis
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Predictive human error analysis
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Consequence analysis
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Performance influencing factor analysis
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Error reduction analysis.
These techniques will be illustrated later with reference to a simple example, the loading of a chlorine tanker.
8.5.1 Task analysis
Task analysis is a very general term that encompasses a wide variety of techniques (see [3] and Chapter 5 of this book for an overview of available methods). In this context, the objective of task analysis is to provide a systematic and comprehensive description of the task structure and to give insights into how errors can arise. The structure produced by task analysis is combined with the results of the PIF analysis as part of the error prediction process.
The particular type of task analysis used in this example is Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA). This has the advantage that it has been applied extensively in a number of safety critical industries. HTA breaks down the overall objective of a task by successively redescribing it in increasing detail, to whatever level of description is required by the analysis. At each of the levels, a plan is produced that describes...
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