Modeling and Simulating Work Practice: A Method for Work Systems Design

er than abstracting human behavior as work processes or tasks--functional idealizations of the work to be accomplished--we model people's activities comprehensively and chronologically throughout the day.5 We emphasize that an analysis of how work gets done must be open to understanding the effects of behaviors in different places and times, details often omitted in a product-oriented task analysis. For example, someone might not schedule meetings at the office before 10:30 a.m. because of a babysitter's schedule, or he or she might use scheduling software on a computer at home to reserve meeting rooms for later that day. Such practices are relevant to the design of workplace facilities and scheduling. We call our method human-centered because we focus on how people organize their work life and the details of their practices. We believe this best suggests work system transformations, including any different tools and processes that might eventually be required.3 For a look at...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: EXPERT
• Authors: Maarten Sierhuis, William J. Clancey
• Keywords: Behavior, EXPERT 2002, Product-oriented Task Analysis, Tool