An integrated approach to human reliability analysis - decision analytic dynamic reliability model

The reliability of human operators in process control is sensitive to the c ontext. Tn many contemporary human reliability analysis (HRA) methods, this is not sufficiently taken into account. The aim of this article is that in tegration between probabilistic and psychological approaches in human relia bility should be attempted. This is achieved first, by adopting such method s that adequately reflect the essential features of the process control act ivity, and secondly, by carrying out an interactive HRA process. Descriptio n of the activity context, probabilistic modeling, and psychological analys is form an iterative interdisciplinary sequence of analysis in which the re sults of one subtask maybe input to another. The analysis of the context is carried out first with the help of a common set of conceptual tools. The r esulting descriptions of the context promote the probabilistic modeling, th rough which new results regarding the probabilistic dynamics can be achieve d. These can be incorporated in the context descriptions used as reference in the psychological analysis of actual performance. The results also provi de new knowledge of the constraints of activity, by providing information o f the premises of the operator's actions. Finally, the stochastic marked po int process model gives a tool, by which psychological methodology may be i nterpreted and utilized for reliability analysis. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.