A Critical Task Analysis Method and Extension to the Systems Modeling Language

Abstract

The United States Department of War and industry are rapidly adopting digital engineering and Model‐Based Systems Engineering to facilitate system design and acquisition using languages such as the Sys tems M odeling L anguage (SysML). These tools support the design of increasingly complex systems as they maintain system requirements, analysis, and system specification within a common toolset. The models provide a single source of truth to be shared across the design team, ideally improving knowledge sharing. Unfortunately, representation of human interaction with these tools has been limited. The current research defined a SysML extension and modeling method to support critical task analysis for user interface design of safety‐critical systems. This language extension and method capture the required elements for critical task analysis as required in United States Department of War documentation, include associated information elements for each task, and provide a method to simulate the performance of these critical tasks to estimate the criticality of each information element to the user within a specific mission. The model provides a method to understand the information requirements during user interface design, as well as to include human task modeling to support simulation during mission engineering.