Articulating Human Systems Integration

Abstract

Human-centered design (HCD) has become effectively possible when human-in-the-loop simulation (HITLS) capabilities have emerged with the tremendous development of the twenty-first century’s digital capabilities. Simulation enables us to holistically integrate people and systems. Interconnectivity in our digital society created new kinds of complexity and properties of complex systems, which need to be addressed, such as separability. HCD, supported by HITLS from the beginning of the design process by developing virtual prototypes of the target system, enables activity analysis, human-centered agile development and certification. Human systems integration (HSI) is the result of an appropriate mix of HCD and Systems Engineering (SE) during the whole lifecycle of a system. It can be considered as a field of investigation and even a new discipline. Therefore, human and organizational factors in the design of sociotechnical systems open epistemological issues and solutions. Finally, the shift from traditional engineering to digital engineering induces the shift from rigid automation to flexible autonomy, which involves artificial intelligence methods and tools based on the acquisition of procedural and declarative knowledge from experts. The PRODEC method enables such acquisition and will be presented.