Verification And Validation Of Complex Systems Human Factors Issues

Verification and Validation of Complex Systems: Human Factors Issues

Despite its increasing importance, the verification and validation of the human-machine interface is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of system development. Although much has been written about the design and developmentprocess, very little organized information is available on how to verifyand validate highly complex and highly coupled dynamic systems. Inability toevaluate such systems adequately may become the limiting factor in our ability to employ systems that our technology and knowledge allow us to design. This volume, based on a NATO Advanced Science Institute held in 1992, is designed to provide guidance for the verification and validation of all highly complex and coupled systems. Air traffic control isused an an example to ensure that the theory is described in terms that will allow its implementation, but the results can be applied to all complex and coupled systems. The volume presents the knowledge and theory ina format that will allow readers from a wide variety of backgrounds to apply it to the systems for which they are responsible. The emphasis is on domains where significant advances have been made in the methods of identifying potential problems and in new testing methods and tools. Also emphasized are techniques to identify the assumptions on which a system is built and to spot their weaknesses.

Verification and Validation of Complex Systems

Human Factors in Certification

Much has happened to certification and to human factors during the past few years. In this volume, the editors and other specialists discuss the topic of human factors applied to certification. They focus on core topics in the certification process that have emerged in the study of product certification in high-tech industries. The editors' purpose is to document advances in the study of certification processes defined largely by the 1993 international conference on the application of human factors principles to the study of product certification in man-machine systems. Although the book focuses mostly on certification in large, man-machine systems, such as aeronautics, its principles also apply to other high tech industries, such as medicine and computers. An introductory paper and a group of papers presenting propositions and philosophies about human factors contribute to a framework for human factors certification. The papers in this volume: * adopt a more direct approach to certification activities, * deal with aspects of human-machine integration, * address topics that should feature in any established human factors certification of advanced aviation systems, * use ideas that already exist in aviation as a basis for discussing certification issues, * consider issues that arise in the certification of complex future systems, and * describe some current characteristics of human factors as a discipline that would influence its application to certification.