Integrating human factors principles into systems engineering

The objective of this paper is to examine current literature and to compile a guideline for integrating human factors principles into systems engineering. Each of the four suggested design stages - requirements acquisition, concept generation, preliminary, detailed is characterized by a short description of the systems engineer´s and the human factors engineer´s roles and stage goals, the types of questions posed by the human factors engineer during the process, and suggested methods for integration between the two disciplines. The design process proposed in this paper is not intended to be a universal approach, but rather, a guideline for engineers regarding the overall design development process. The primary audience in this paper for this paper is systems engineers in the aerospace industry looking to better understand how to incorporate human factors into their designs.