What piece of this work is man?

Abstract

When designing modern systems the vogue is to increase automation and reduce human involvement, a trend that is not always favourably received. The designer must be able to choose the level of automation in a system, but must bear in mind the various system design drivers. Peoples' reaction to automation can vary for apparently similar scenarios and the user requirements (both customer and operator) must be examined carefully for each individual domain, with the clear understanding that experience in one domain may not transfer directly to another. However, the basic human requirements within the system must be given a high priority (even above economics), in particular where the humans are customers or third parties of the system in question. Remember that they are part of the system. For most systems involving people, particularly as direct customers, it is unlikely that full automation will be desirable, the optimum being a mix of machine and human. Even human-intensive systems will experience customer benefit from the automation of complementary functions, particularly where these are safety-critical. A useful rule of thumb might be to automate the predictable and leave the unpredictable to human input, while remembering that virtually all systems have an unpredictable element. However, whatever the system, if it does not work as required be sure that the customer will want to complain to a human.