Manprint in the Program Initiation Phase of System Acquisition

Abstract

For the U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory (USAHEL), Carlow Associates recently completed development of the MANPRINT Integrated Decision/Engineering Aid (IDEA) for the Program Initiation Phase of system development. The IDEA includes a standard MANPRINT process describing activities, events and products for the Phase, a decision aid and analyst's workstation to support the application of MANPRINT technology to the Program Initiation Phase, and computer-based MANPRINT tools to support the Program Initiation Phase. Specific tools included in IDEA are: 1) an early comparability analysis tool (ECA) which provides baseline system lessons learned and high MANPRINT drivers, 2) an automated task analysis tool, 3) an allocation of function tool which enables and supports the determination of the required role of the soldier in the system, and 4) a workload and human performance simulation tool based on a task network and probabilistic process variables. Efforts involved in the MANPRINT process development addressed the integration of the activities and products of Human Factors Engineering (HFE), Manpower, Personnel and Training (MPT), and System Safety (SS) and Health Hazard Assessment (HHA) with the activities of the Materiel Acquisition Process (MAP), and identification of MANPRINT technology requirements to support the application of this process.