Jennifer McGovern Narkevicius, Ph. D. | Managing Director of Jenius, LLC | Column 3

Human Systems Integration: Enhance the goals of people

Oh, yeah, and Safety…

Human Systems Integration (HSI) includes the human based technical areas that are central to good design and successful operation of systems throughout their operational lives. Many definitions of HSI include the Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Human Factors Engineering technical domains. These definitions also incorporate Safety, Habitability, Environment, Occupational Health, and Personnel Survivability. Many practitioners are very comfortable discussing the first four domains. They are confident that the technical areas are well comprehended and that the organizational processes underlying these domains are well understood. However, many are not as fluent with the other four domains. These technical areas and organizational processes are often less well understood and less well experienced leaving many practitioners less comfortable with these domains. The result has the potential for these domains not to get the attention early in the design process that true HSI demands.