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Published VersionCC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Towards Holistic Functional Task Analysis
Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries, Vol.35(1), pp.1-16
2025
Abstract
Task analysis (TA) can contribute to work systems design, accident investigation, risk assessment, human error identification, planning, and training. Despite the advantages of existing sequential and hierarchical methods, they decompose tasks into their structure and focus on the order in which tasks are accomplished. They do not trace all interactions among elements/subtasks/operations at different levels. As the complexity of tasks increases, not keeping track of all interactions may result in poor, unwanted outcomes. This research introduces a different approach to TA that decomposes tasks into their constituent functions, describes the functionality of the overall work system, traces (dynamic nonlinear) interactions among functions, and highlights the role of functional variability in forming emergent outcomes. This approach to TA is called functional task analysis (FTA). A case study on nursing work was used to demonstrate the suitability of the FTA approach. The findings of this study show that the FTA approach contributes to task modeling by building a nonsequential, nonhierarchical functional model of a complex task considering dynamic, nonlinear interactions among functions. The FTA also contributes to task description by explaining different ways a task can be accomplished. It also increases the understanding, interpretation, and analysis of how changes in work conditions shape good/acceptable and poor/unacceptable outcomes. The FTA can complement the TA by adding some aspects, including functionality, nonlinearity, dynamics, and emergence, that the TA does not normally consider. The findings highlight how the functional approach to TA can be deployed as an alternative (or complement) to other task analysis methods.
Details
- Title
- Towards Holistic Functional Task Analysis
- Authors
- Vahid Salehi (Corresponding Author) - Memorial University of NewfoundlandPaul M. Salmon - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems ScienceCatherine Burns - University of WaterlooAlexis McGill - University of New BrunswickDoug Smith - Memorial University of NewfoundlandBrian Veitch - Memorial University of Newfoundland
- Publication details
- Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries, Vol.35(1), pp.1-16
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1002/hfm.21059
- ISSN
- 1520-6564; 2157-4650
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Author(s). Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
- Data Availability
- The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
- Grant note
- This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alliance Grant.
- Organisation Unit
- Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991078297602621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Engineering, Manufacturing
- Ergonomics
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