Welcome to the Air Force Institute of Technology

The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) established the Human Systems Integration Working Group (HSIWG) at its July 2006 Symposium in Orlando, Florida. The formation of the HSIWG was the result of the efforts of Mike Mueller (Air Force Center for Systems Engineering) and Steve Deal (Deal Corporation), who now serve as Co-Chairs. Mueller and Deal recognized the need to emphasize Human Systems Integration in Systems Engineering and petitioned the INCOSE leadership to form the HSIWG at its January 2006 International Workshop in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In conjunction with the January International Workshop, INCOSE hosted its Vision 2020 meeting to develop the direction of the organization for the future. The participants of Vision 2020 identified the inclusion of appropriate “Human or People Engineering” as a challenge facing Systems Engineering today. At that meeting, four of the five working groups explicitly concluded that the treatment of humans in systems was currently weak and was an area that needed to be worked in the next fifteen years. This validated the need for the HSIWG and led to the INCOSE leadership sanctioning its establishment.

Human Systems Integration (HSI) is the Systems Engineering discipline that focuses on optimizing the human component of every system. It strives to ensure that the manpower, personnel, training, human factors, environment, safety, health, survivability, and habitability domains are integrated throughout system design, development, fielding, and sustainment. The goal of HSI in the acquisition process is to optimize total system performance—accommodating the characteristics of the user population that will operate, maintain, and support the system—and to minimize life-cycle costs.

Nearly 100 professional organizations whose members contribute to HSI practice were identified and notified of the HSIWG kick-off meeting to be held at the 2006 Symposium. Additionally, Mueller, who shares responsibility for HSI at the Air Force Center for Systems Engineering (AF CSE), and Deal, who has been working with members of the cognitive engineering community, distributed notices through their professional networks. More than 70 people expressed interest in participating in this working group, including an international array of professionals from government, industry, and academia.

The HSIWG kick-off meeting was attended by 20 enthusiastic professionals. Among them were Dr. Dennis Strouble and Perry Bowen from the AF CSE and representatives from numerous other industry, government, and international organizations. The group jointly agreed that the purpose of the HSIWG was to facilitate embedding HSI within Systems Engineering, promoting the benefit of placing the proper focus on the role of people in the development and operation of systems. This is an ambitious undertaking that aligns well with the conclusions of the INCOSE Vision 2020 meeting.

In addition, the participants identified 23 potential activities for the working group and settled on three primary activities to focus initial efforts:
     · Define the relationships between HSI and other Systems Engineering activities.
     · Identify potential Key Performance Parameters, Measures of Performance, Measures of Effectiveness, and requirements for HSI in developing systems.
     · Influence HSI inclusion in Systems Engineering documents and standards.
The HSIWG members are working these areas in preparation for its next meeting at the 2007 INCOSE Workshop in Albuquerque, NM, 27 – 31 January 2007.

If you would like to be a part of the HSIWG or to be added to the information distribution list, send an email to hsi-info@incose.org. You can help the HSIWG to realize its vision that “Human Systems Integration is embedded in systems engineering practices, leading to the efficient delivery of effective systems.”