Author: Benjamin Schwartz

Hi, I'm Ben! Growing up I wanted to be an astronaut because it looked fun. Then I watched Apollo 13 and saw that it was the engineers who had the most interesting and challenging roles. At Space Camp I learned about the unique challenges of living and working in space, so I decided to pursue a career in human factors engineering. I have been fortunate to work on many fascinating projects in aviation, military, and commercial systems. I'm proud to make complicated, mission-critical systems easier and more effective to use. I am currently the Director of Human Engineering at Monterey Technologies, a small business providing human engineering services to a variety of commercial and government customers. I support a top-notch team of human factors engineers, user experience designers, and other specialists. We apply agile, user-centered systems engineering to ensure that systems meet stakeholder and mission needs. I'm also involved in STEM education and mentorship through organizations such as the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), SAE International, Girl Scouts, and local schools. I'm passionate about improving the discipline and practice of systems engineering and particularly the systems engineering specialty of human systems integration (HSI). Through professional societies such as the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), and the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) I have contributed to the development of standards and guidance, presented at conferences, and generally shared my passion for developing mission-capable, highly-usable systems. That's also my objective for Engineering for Humans. Writing this blog helps me think through and organize my thoughts. I also want to bring awareness to the role of human engineering in system development and to foster critical discussion on current industry trends. I'd love to hear from you, you can reach me at benjamin@engineeringforhumans.com.

“Diversity of thought” is the “all lives matter” of corporate inclusion efforts

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 9 June 2021

For at least the last decade, engineering companies have talked a great deal about “diversity and inclusion”. Inevitably, many people¹ have the takeaway that this means “diversity of thought”. This is like telling a Black Lives Matter supporter that “all lives matter”; of course all lives matter, but that’s completely missing the point². Diversity of thought is important to avoid groupthink and promote innovation; but that’s not the point of diversity and inclusion efforts³.

Diversity and inclusion means making sure that teams are actually diverse, across a range of visible and not-visible features. Why does that matter?

Agile SE Part Zero: Overview

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 3 June 2021

“Agile” is the latest buzzword in systems engineering. It has a fair share of both adherents and detractors, not to mention a long list of companies offering to sell tools, training, and coaching. What has been lacking is a thoughtful discussion about when agile provides value, when it doesn’t, and how to adapt agile practices to be effective in complex systems engineering projects.

I don’t claim this to be the end-all guide on agile systems engineering, but hope it will at least spark some discussion. Please comment on the articles with details from your own experiences. If you’re interested in contributing or collaborating, please contact me at benjamin@engineeringforhumans.com, I’d love to add your voice to the site.

Human Factors Design Drives System Performance

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 28 March 2021

Bottom Line Up Front:

Human performance is a major factor in overall system performance
Humans are increasingly the bottleneck for system performance
Human factors engineering design drives human performance and thus system performance

Why care about humans?

In many system development efforts, the focus is on the capabilities of the technology: How fast can the jet fly? How accurately can the rifle fire?

We can talk about the horsepower of the engines and the boring of the rifle until the cows come home, but without a human pressing the throttle or pulling the trigger, neither technology is doing anything. A major mistake many systems engineering efforts experience is neglecting the impact of the human on the performance of the system.

Ergonomics

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 17 January 2021

The term ergonomics was coined by Wojciech Jastrzębowski in 1857 to mean “the science of work”⁴ with the goal of improving productivity and profit. He described the importance of physical, emotional, entertainment, and rational aspects of the labor and employee experience, but the context was squarely on factory-type production.

Over time, this has evolved into two, slightly different definitions.

Human Factors Engineering (HFE)

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 17 January 2021

Human factors engineering (HFE) is a broad and multidisciplinary field that designs and evaluates the human interfaces of a system.

Don’t stop reading — that definition masks a lot of complexity. Let’s break it down:

System

INCOSE defines system as “an arrangement of parts or elements that together exhibit behaviour or meaning that the individual constituents do not. Systems can be either physical or conceptual, or a combination of both.”

User Experience (UX)

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 17 January 2021

The term user experience was coined in 1993 by Don Norman while working at Apple. He intended it to encompass a person’s entire experience related to a product, from any feelings they had prior to using it, to first seeing it in the store, getting it home, turning it on and learning how to use it, telling someone else about it, etc.

I highly recommend this short video where Mr. Norman explains this history and also complains about the frequent misuse of the word:

DoD re-affirms importance of HSI in acquisition policy overhaul

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 27 September 2020

The US Department of Defense is overhauling it’s acquisition policy from a stale, process-driven approach to a new, outcome-driven approach. The new concept is called the Adaptive Acquisition Framework (AAF). Its goal is to remove bureaucracy and give government program managers more flexibility to adapt to the needs of their particular acquisition.

Learn from the mistakes of others

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 16 September 2020

The problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by experience… i.e. the hard way. By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally a better way to do business…
General James Mattis

The most successful people in any profession learn from the experiences of others. You can learn from their successes, sure. But don’t focus on doing things exactly they way they did, you’ll stifle your own innovation. Instead, understand their successes, extract relevant lessons, and forge your own path.

More importantly, learn from others’ failures and mistakes.

That’s why I publish a Reading / Listening List. As of the publishing of this article, 5 of the 6 recommendations are about poor engineering and design⁵. I find these stories fascinating, enlightening, and valuable. By avoiding the pitfalls of the past, we improve the likelihood of success in our own projects.

It’s okay to make mistakes, but strive to at least make original mistakes.

A Functional Team is NOT an Integrated Product Team

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 12 July 2020

“My name is Inigo Montoya. You won a government contract. Prepare to deliver CDRLs.”

TL;DR: An Integrated Product Team (IPT) is a cross-functional group. If everyone on the team has the same background, that’s a functional or discipline team. There’s a difference.

Board man gets paid

Posted by Benjamin Schwartz on 22 March 2020

For years I’ve been advocating for the effective inclusion of human systems integration (HSI) in the systems engineering (SE) process. I had to address a persistent misunderstanding of what HSI is and how it relates to human factors; while that can be frustrating, I recognized that it wasn’t going to change overnight. Instead, I worked diligently to share my message with anyone who would listen.

Recently, my diligence paid off. I was contacted by a group putting together a proposal for a defense contract. The government’s request outlined their expectations for HSI as part of the systems engineering effort in a way that the proposal team hadn’t seen before. Someone on the team had heard me speak before, knew I had the right expertise they needed, and reached out to request my support.