Generic and integrated human factors guidance for air systems acquisition

This paper reports on a project concerned with developing guidance on human factors integration for air systems projects. The concept of human factors integration in support of defence acquisition projects has been current for almost fifteen years. There are now many examples of the benefits of human factors integration, as well as the costs and risks associated with ignoring it. The purpose of this paper was to identify requirements for improved guidance on human factors integration that would ensure its consistent application across programmes. The work involved a survey of acquisition projects to identify user requirements and the development of Web based guidance material. The guidance is true to the established concept of human factors integration but offers a clearer strategy for integration with projects by stage of development, and defines key performance indicators criteria to assess the successful completion of human factors inputs to projects.