Human systems integration (HSI) is integral to any comprehensive system engineering process. HSI is defined by the International Conference on System Engineering as “interdisciplinary technical and management processes for integrating human considerations within and across all system elements; an essential enabler to systems engineering practice.” But how does one accomplish this interdisciplinary integration? This paper highlights the essential role of the warfighter as an overarching elicitor and integrator of system requirements, and how to effectively exploit this crucial resource. All complex systems are developed to be used and maintained in a specific operational environment by a trained user. It is therefore imperative that the unique operational perspectives of those users are made part of the design and development process. There are several key opportunities within the acquisition process where qualified, representative users play a significant role in refining the system's requirements and defining how the total system will perform. Active participation from the warfighter and user community in the design process will aid in identifying issues early enough to make a meaningful influence on design, fosters warfighter acceptance of the system, reduces the risks associated with warfighter alterations to system configurations, and validates total system performance using human in the loop evaluations.
There has been a high degree of cooperation and collaboration among the Navy system commands with respect to human performance under the Human Systems Performance Assessment Capability initiative. Additionally, the various warfare centers for Naval Sea Systems Command have shown the ability to team across the wide Navy organization. The steering group has shown the practitioners how to team and work together to accomplish similar objectives across different systems. Opportunities to collaborate have been identified and executed with minimal supervision and measurable contributions have been collected. One of the valuable benefits that has been gained through this effort is the ability for practitioners to share knowledge, methods, and tools with their counterparts across the Navy infrastructure. A shared common approach to addressing human performance data collection is emerging as a result. One of the real advantages of the project is a shared vision on the importance of human performance as part of the system engineering process of defining requirements through the eventual test and evaluation phases of a program.
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