EUROCONTROL has launched its Human Factors Case, a revised practical process for identifying and managing human performance issues within aviation projects. The new Human Factors Case was launched at a workshop held at EUROCONTROL from 26 to 28 November 2007.

 

The workshop brought together around 100 participants from all over Europe representing Air Traffic Service Providers, Airlines, Industry, Universities and R&D organisations to share experiences and lessons learned from integrating Human Factors in aviation projects. Participants heard about the experience of applying the Human Factors Case in EUROCONTROL Programmes (FASTI and N-FPDS in UAC Maastricht), and also about the experience of DFS, NATS and Airbus in integrating human factors into their system design processes. The workshop identified user needs and suggested refinements to the methodology.

The workshop comes at a time when the impacts of increasing automation on human performance are moving into the spotlight. This is especially so in the context of the SESAR operational concept which foresees large changes in the roles and responsibilities for operational staff. The Human Factors Case principles have already been successfully applied within the SESAR definition phase. The early SESAR findings strongly recommend the wide application of the Human Factors Case methodology in future aviation projects.

“Integrating human factors issues into the SESAR programme at an early stage is crucial to the successful modernisation of European ATM through SESAR,” says Manfred Barbarino, Human Factors Domain Manager at EUROCONTROL.

“By bringing in human factors expertise at the beginning of a project we not only support delivery within time and budget constraints, but also help to ensure that the ‘product’ is tested and accepted by the end user.”

It is expected that a broad application of the Human Factors Case approach within aviation projects will ultimately pave the way for Human Factors Certification of air traffic management systems similar to that already achieved for airborne systems. This means the development of HF standards and requirements for ATM systems and equipment to demonstrate that users can safely perform their tasks associated with intended functions.