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OCR for page 34
CHAPTER Vl
H u man Factors
In its earlier report, the panel concluded that
Consideration of human factors in the future process is vital
because millions of individuals depend on the services of the
SSA to assure their welfare. Because nearly everyone is
involved with the social security system in one way or another,
its disruption needs to be avoided. It is central to the
concept, therefore, that human factors begin the mainstream of
the system development.
Human factors comprise the behavioral components of work systems.
Although important in all work systems, human factors achieve particular
significance in systems that are labor intensive, or whose product is a
human service. In an organization such as SSA, which delivers a human
service through a labor-intensive work system, human factors are a major
determinant of performance.
Human beings, unlike simple machines, are capable of exceeding their
"design potential.'' An SSA claim representative making a determined
effort to unravel a complicated claim for the benefit of a retiree
exemplifies the latent possibilities of human behavior. Observing this
phenomenon among government employees in 1937, Luther Gulick wrote:
Their capacity for great and productive labor, creative coop-
erative work, and loyal self-sacrifice knows no limits
provided the whole man, body-mind-and-spirit, is thrown into
the program.4/
By contrast, human performance can also be self-limiting. Human beings
are quite capable of restricting their productivity for reasons or
motives that may in fact be totally unrelated to the work system.
How effective the SSA's future process will be depends upon the
skill with which the SSA addresses and resolves human factors issues.
While the capabilities and expense of modern data processing and
telecommunications facilities might distract attention from human
factors issues, the success or failure of the future process will turn
on human factors. If a claims representative working with a client in
34
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35
a local office cannot or will not "make it happen," the future process
will fail to achieve its potential for cost-effective service.
Human factors considerations cut across all the key system concerns
already discussed--acquisition, transition, and privacy and security.
Human factors is not simply another component in a chain of components
in the future process, or any other work system. Rather, it is an
integral and essential aspect of all of the constituents of the system.
Measured in isolation, human factors might appear to contribute
little to the accomplishment of system objectives. In the statistical
sense, human factors are "interactive" rather than ''main effect"
variables, and by interacting with other system factors, human factors
account for a great proportion of the variance of a system's perfor-
mance. It is this interactive aspect that makes human factors so
critical and at the same time so elusive.
The SSA, in its human factors studies, is thoroughly evaluating
the interface between the SSA employee and the proposed new system. Its
evaluation includes considerations of the configuration of the terminal
--one of the main interfaces between the human and the electronic data
processing system--and changes in office procedures.
The interface between a person interacting with a system and the
system itself should be designed so that people feel comfortable with
the system and are willing to work with it and utilize its features.
Even though a system may be rich with features, the people interfacing
with it may avoid using them because they are difficult to learn or
remember, they require unnatural motions, input mechanisms are confus-
ing, output responses are difficult to recognize or resolve, distracting
sounds or lights Gamete from the interacting device, colors or shapes
are confusing or repugnant, or other factors engender an antagonistic
attitude toward the new system. Furthermore, distrust can develop
because established relationships with an old system have been disturbed.
Human factors design contributes to the overall effectiveness of a
system, primarily by ensuring that people interface efficiently with it
and with one another. The fort of interaction with the system should
not become a barrier to such human interactions as those between a
claims representative and a client.
Issues that require analysis include: what impact computer
terminals might have on the relationship between claims representative
and client, whether it is useful or desirable to let the client view
the terminal's screen, and whether in certain simple applications,
clients would like to, or be willing to, operate terminals themselves
in lieu of waiting.
THE NEEDS OF CLIENTS
An area that requires further attention is the evaluation of needs
of the SSA clients. The SSA provide a service mandated by legislation,
but the manner in which the SSA meets the perceived needs of clients may
determine if or how well they are satisfied with the service. It is
desirable that the future process satisfy the perceived high-value needs
of all clients.
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36
The SSA could, through an experienced consumer research organiza-
tion, determine which aspects of the SSA service delivery system are
considered most important by clients. To complement the SSA's present
human factors studies and to provide significant insight to service
attributes that should be stressed, the panel suggests that the SSA
pursue a study of clients' attitudes about the process. In recommending
this, the panel observes that great care is required in the planning,
execution, and interpretation of such a study.
HUMAN FACTORS IN ACQUISITION
As described in Chapter III of this report, the Social Security
Administration is governed in its acquisition of a large computer-
communications system by the policies of OMB Circular A-109 and the
Brooks Act. Thus, the SSA needs to adopt an acquisition strategy that
gives vendors a chance to respond with maximum design flexibility, while
making sure that the critical human factors issues are fully considered.
Highly detailed human factors requirements might be viewed by some as
unnecessary constraints on vendors in their development of designs for
the future system. Yet, without full considerations of behavioral
factors, the acquisition might be driven entirely by technological
considerations. An approach to this problem was suggested earlier in the
planning effort by the Office of Advanced Systems in its summary of the
human factors program:
In order to integrate technology into the user's job, it
becomes necessary to thoroughly understand all of the
activities that must be performed within the job position;
the ways in which they relate to each other; and the inputs
and outputs of each activity. Once a complete understanding
has been reached, it becomes possible to make a rational
allocation of functions between employee and computer.5/
To develop the understanding delineated in the first sentence of
the GAS excerpt above is clearly the responsibility of the SSA. The
allocation described in the second sentence is a task for potential
vendors responding to the REP. The problem is how to convey SSA's
understanding to the vendors.
The panel finds that it would be entirely appropriate for the SSA
to include in its REP functional service output requirements and
criteria, but inappropriate and undesirable to include structural
constraints on hardware, software, or design. The SSA should provide
detailed descriptions of the client service interactions required of
the social security system (the basic source of which is statutory)
and detailed criteria that it will use to judge the cost-effectiveness
of the services delivered. To give full recognition to human factors,
the SSA could request vendors to demonstrate, first through simulations,
and then in district offices, the features of their service delivery
systems.
The strong commitment of SSA's Office of Advanced Systems to human
factors is indicated by its establishment of a Human Factors Test and
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37
Evaluation Facility (TEF). This facility acts as a laboratory to test
many of the facets of human factors. The panel notes, however, that
because the human factors problems related to the future process cannot
all be studied in a laboratory facility, the GAS plans for the coming
year call for some human factors tests to be made in operational field
offices. The essential point is that employee and client attitudes and
perceptions not readily captured in a laboratory may be critical to the
success of the future process. The SSA will need to deal effectively
with them, as well as with the more tractable "human engineering''
problems. Just as much of the human factors work will take place out-
side the TEF, the TEF can also be useful for purposes other than human
factors. The panel is impressed with the personnel and activities of
the TEF, and considers that it has the potential to play a major role
not only in human factors, but in the acquisition and transition
processes as well. Both planning and operating personnel can use the
TEF to collaborate on the development and documentation of service
interaction requirements and evaluation criteria in an effort to ensure
that acquisition decisions are made only after full consideration of
human factors. Working prototypes of alternative district office
subsystems can be demonstrated in the TEF without disrupting actual
operations in a local office and without subjecting contractors to
unpredictable and uncontrollable factors. The panel supports SSA's
plans to exploit the TEF in this way.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
factors issues
