Project proposal

Project Assignment 1: Project Proposal

Students will develop an individual project that employs tools and techniques learned in the course. This may include the modification of an existing HRA method or the development of a new HRA method applied to a chosen domain problem. Students are not expected to collect or analyze data, but will be required to detail a HRA data collection and analysis plan and suggest implementation strategies, similar to the structure of a funding proposal for an exploratory project. Any topic can be chosen, as long as the existence of human reliability issues can be cited.

The project proposal, which is due at the beginning of the course, is not expected to have details related to the application of HRA tools and techniques that will be learned later in the course. However, the student is expected to discuss a human error issue that negatively impacts human health, safety, and/or performance in a particular domain and has not yet been appropriately addressed.

The project idea is expected to mature and develop over the course of the semester with some later modifications to account for knowledge gained through lectures, reading, and discussions. This will allow students to receive feedback on their proposed topic as the course progresses.

The 1000 word proposal should include the following five items. Please include section sub-headers for each item.

1. Problem Statement – what is the human error and why is it important?

· A problem can be defined as important if it has a measurable impact on a critical outcome (financial, health and well-being, performance, etc.). Justify the problem importance and its relevance to human error.

· Provide at least two sources with citations to justify problem importance (newspaper articles, journal papers, documented initiatives, industry white papers, government documents, verbal or written statements by key stakeholders, etc.). The sources must include a statistic and/or a subjective statement of importance.

· Provide a two-sentence concise summary of your problem statement. Please note that the required justification is separate from the two-sentence summary.

· Required Template: Humans fail to [problem] resulting in [human error outcome]. The criticality of this problem has been verified by [source] through [specific qualitative/quantitative source content].

2. Why hasn’t someone found a solution previously?

· Discuss challenges and any prior attempts (not necessarily HRAs) to address the problem.

3. Focus– what is the problem focus?

· Select one interaction category or a hybrid of two categories and justify the relevance to the problem statement.

· REQUIRED: Human-Human, Human-Group, Human-Organization, Human-Artifact.

· Select one human theoretical category or a hybrid of two categories and justify the relevance to the problem statement

· REQUIRED - Select only one level of cognition as the foundation for your human process: Low level cognition (memory, sensory processing, etc.); High level cognition (decision making and problem solving).

· OPTIONAL – Interaction of cognitive level (low/high) with other theoretical categories may be appropriate for the selected problem focus, although this is not required: Sociological (relevant for simple human interactions, excluding human-artifact); Organizational (relevant for more complex sociological structures, human-org interaction).

· Provide at least two sources with citations to justify the connection of the problem focus (interaction category and human theoretical category) presented in #3 to the problem statement presented in #1. Examples of sources include newspaper articles, journal papers, documented initiatives, industry white papers, government documents, verbal or written statements by key stakeholders. The sources must include a statistic and/or a subjective statement of relevance.

· Provide a two-sentence concise summary of your problem focus. Please note that the required justification is separate from the two-sentence summary.

· Required Template: The problem focus is a [category] interaction between [stakeholders and/or processes and/or components], driven by [human theoretical category], resulting in [human error outcome defined in #1]. The existence and criticality of the problem focus has been verified by [source] through [specific qualitative/quantitative source content referencing problem focus]

· Note: Individual theories are not required to be listed here. Theories will be addressed in Homework 3.

· Note: The two sources required for #1 and #3 can be the same. However, they must independently address the justification of the problem statement and problem focus.

4. Project Goals (high level discussion) – what do you hope to gain from this HRA?

· How will the analysis potentially help to address the identified problem focus?

5. What sources of information will you use for your project (be specific)?

· List and justify the use of at least two sources (stakeholders and/or data) that will be used to detail the processes associated with this human error. The sources must be specific to the focus identified in #3 (human interaction and human theories). For example, if your problem is focused on decision making (high level cognition) in a team environment (human-group interaction), then you need sources (stakeholder interviews, team protocols, meeting notes, etc.) to detail the specific decisions that are required in this context and the decision criterion (input).

· Source examples include instructions manuals, protocols, flowcharts, organizational charts, guidelines, and any other documentation of the process. Provide citations.

· Include justification for the relevance of data and/or stakeholder sources to the focus identified in #3.

· Include titles, organizational affiliation, and any other relevant information for stakeholders who will be utilized for the project.

· Describe how you will access and utilize the selected sources.

· Note: The data and stakeholder sources can overlap with the sources identified in #1 and #3 if the requirements for #5 are independently addressed by the source.

· Note: You may use yourself as one of the sources if you have direct knowledge of a process or component that is not publically documented. However, you cannot be listed as a primary source to satisfy the aforementioned two source minimum requirement. You many only use yourself as a supplemental source. Non-publically documented sources are only relevant for topics that involve confidential information or the use of internal resources from an organization.

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