title: Evaluation of a Human Factors Analysis and Classification System as used by simulated mishap boards.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The reliability of the Department of Defense Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (DOD-HFACS) has been examined when used by individuals working alone to classify the causes of summary, or partial, information about a mishap. However, following an actual mishap a team of investigators would work together to gather and analyze a large amount of information before identifying the causal factors and coding them with DOD-HFACS.
  
  
  METHODS
  There were 204 military Aviation Safety Officer students who were divided into 30 groups. Each group was provided with evidence collected from one of two military aviation mishaps. DOD-HFACS was used to classify the mishap causal factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Averaged across the two mishaps, acceptable levels of reliability were only achieved for 56.9% of nanocodes. There were high levels of agreement regarding the factors that did not contribute to the incident (a mean agreement of 50% or greater between groups for 91.0% of unselected nanocodes); the level of agreement on the factors that did cause the incident as classified using DOD-HFACS were low (a mean agreement of 50% or greater between the groups for 14.6% of selected nanocodes).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite using teams to carry out the classification, the findings from this study are consistent with other studies of DOD-HFACS reliability with individuals. It is suggested that in addition to simplifying DOD-HFACS itself, consideration should be given to involving a human factors/organizational psychologist in mishap investigations to ensure the human factors issues are identified and classified in a consistent and reliable manner.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Innovation and Structural Change, J. E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. poc73@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D000060:Accidents, Aviation / Q000145:classification*; D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000145:classification*; D001359:Aviation / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D008889:Military Personnel; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017751:Safety Management; D013334:Students