Validation Engineering in Ergonomics: Theoretical Perspectives

A number of ergonomists have described or developed methodological models for the design, development, and evaluation of ergonomic products and processes. These models can be shown to be subsets of a classical methodological approach — well known in the hardware and systems professions, recently “discovered” by the software profession, and now beginning to be applied to ergonomics. This classical method — here called validation engineering (VE) — is a structured, systematic approach to business and technical risk reduction and user hazard mitigation. The VE lifecycle consists of a series of feedback and feedforward loops. The feedback loops consist of validation testing (implementation vs. requirements), verification testing (of requirements, specifications, and implementation), incremental hazard analyses, and post-deployment corrective and preventative actions. The feedforward loop consists of needs assessment, translation of needs to quantifiable requirements, translation of requirements to quantifiabl...