MAP-01-011 HFI Technical Guide - Human Factors Integration ...

MAP-01-011 – HFI Technical Guide (STGP 11)• The technique could be particularly useful in modelling team-based errors,where a failure event is caused by multiple events distributed across ateam of personnel.• Fault tree analysis has the potential to be used during the design processin order to remove potential failures associated with a system design.• Disadvantages• When used to depict failures in large, complex systems, fault tree analysiscan be very difficult and time consuming to apply. The fault tree itself canalso quickly become large and complicated.• To utilise the technique quantitatively, a high level of training may berequired (DTC115 - Kirwan & Ainsworth 1992).A3.10.4Murphy DiagramsMurphy diagrams are based on the notion that “if anything can go wrong, it will gowrong”. The technique is very similar to fault tree analysis in that errors offailures are analysed in terms of their potential causes. Although originally usedfor the retrospective analysis of error events whereby the analyst conducts eightMurphy diagrams for the error under analysis, there is no reason why thetechnique could not be used to predict potential error events associated tasksteps in a scenario.The method is suited to highly procedural tasks, is highly traceable and has thepotential to deal with team operations.• Advantages• Easy technique to use and learn, requiring little training.• Murphy diagrams present a useful way for the analyst to identify a numberof different possible causes for a specific error.• High documentability.• Each task step failure is exhaustively described, including proximal anddistal sources.• The technique has the potential to be applied to team-based tasks,depicting teamwork and failures with multiple team-based causes.• Murphy diagrams have the potential to use little resources (low cost, timespent etc).• Although developed for the retrospective analysis of error, there appears tobe no reason why it cannot be used predicatively.May 2006 Page A3-92 Issue 4