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CHAPTER IV
Human Factors
The Social Security Administration employs 86,000 people and deals in
one way or another with everyone in the country. Clearly, therefore,
human factors permeate today's SSA process. As SSA attempts to increase
efficiency, improve responsiveness, and apply automation, human factors
considerations will become even more pervasive and critical in the
future SSA process than in the present one.
The basic question is how can the discipline of human factors
engineering, and such behavioral sciences as psychology and sociology
make significant contributions to the design, development, and imple-
mentation of the future SSA process? Moreover, have human factors been
taken sufficiently into account and provided for appropriately in SSA
planning?
The panel is aware that in relation to the future SSA process, the
problem-solving power of the social and behavioral sciences may be lower
than that of computer and communication science and engineering. Yet,
the sheer weight of the human factors problems in the future SSA process
makes this a sticky area. The product of the power-to-solve and the
need-for~solution (the quantity that should be Considered in allocating
effort among areas) is quite high in the human factors equation. If the
panel had only the formal SSA planning documents to judge by, it would
have to conclude that human factors were being relatively though by no
means wholly neglected. However, numerous informal panel discussions
with SSA employees have revealed a keen awareness within the SSA of the
importance of human factors in the future SSA process. Moreover, the
SSA has i ssued a Request for Proposals for a human factors test and
evaluation facility, which spells out several such problems in full and
clearly anticipates marry others. On the basis of all that is known to
it ~ the panel concludes that human factors are likely to get much more
nearly an appropriate amount of attention than usually happens in large
information system developments.
The proposed e ffort in the test and evaluation of human factors is
weighted heave ly toward mar-machine interaction. In view of the heavy
emphasis on the exploitation of computers in the future SSA process,
T.~e~ghting in that direction is appropriate. Even so, somewhat more
Phases should be placed on such psychological and psychosocial
questions as: What factors basically determine the attitudes of clients
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toward the SSA? How can clients be led to appreciate what significant
benefits they are getting? What are the truly critical problems
affecting promptness in the delivery of services? How can the attitudes
of SSA employees be developed to foster efficiency, enter into a produc-
tive relationship with computer technology, and guard against internal
malfeasance and fraud? What factors will determine the acceptance or
rejection of the new systems and processes by field personnel?
The success of the human factors test and evaluation facility will
depend critically upon selecting an outstanding contractor and upon
integrating the work done in the facility into the mainstream of the
future SSA process. The contractor must have advanced expertise in
human factors and software engineering. These are hard requirements to
meet. It may be necessary to create a team of vendors to handle the job.
The problem is especially acute for software because, if the impression
given by the REP is accurate, the facility, in effect, will be defining
the software for the district and branch offices. The panel knows,
however, that considerations of human factors in large system development
projects tend to operate off to one side and not to be viewed as central
or dominant by hardware and software developers. The SSA needs to
consider whether the facility should be promoted from a "human factors
test and evaluation facility" to something like "field office system
development, test, and evaluation facility."
Training today's SSA personnel to use the new tools and techniques
and merging these employees into the process will be very difficult
undertakings. It appears that thus far the planned personnel allocation
is only 6 man-years per year for training--as contrasted with a peak of
474 for programming. The panel recommends that SSA take early steps in
the planning process to get an adequate training program underway. The
panel supports the SSA intention to use computer-assisted instruction
and related computer-based techniques to train and tutor the users; but
the panel doubts that the computer will turn out to be so effective
that only a handful of teachers, under the current plan, will be able
to train 40,000 to 50,000 employees.
Some concern has been expressed by the panel about the prospect of
a terminal on every desk in the district and branch offices. Would the
presence of the terminal--a symbol of cold technology--have a bad effect
upon a significant number of clients? It is likely that this concern
will be shared by others outside the panel, probably by many others, and
unlikely that the question will go away until either there is a plan not
to have a terminal on every desk or there is convincing evidence that
terminals will not have adverse effects upon SSA clients. The catch is
that it will be very difficult to formulate any kind of experiment,
short of a major field trial, that will change the conviction of anyone
who is already convinced about the answer to the question.
The mix of tasks previously performed by man or machine will be
carried out more effectively and efficiently in the future by an
evolving combination of the two. The right balance between the combined
involvement of man and machine in system functions can only be determined
after systematic studies of human factors. The significant issues to be
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addressed include client-employee acceptability, privacy/security, accur-
acy, complexity, speed, and accountability.
There is more to human factors as they pertain to the future SSA
process than is formalized in any discipline. A large body of pertinent
experience exists within the SSA, and the SSA has undertaken a study of
the application of human factors to its proposed data processing system.
A significant amount of the SSA's experience still remains to be chan-
neled into the program of the test and evaluation facility and, indeed,
into all sectors of the development of the future SSA process. Wherever
possible, human factors experts and other behavioral scientists in the
process of influencing design or implementation should be brought into
discussion with experienced SSA personnel.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
future ssa
