DDD SYSTEMS & Dr. Dan
Diaper. A few (more) words on task
analysis. If you are new to doing a task
analysis, then talk to an expert.
TASK ANALYSIS
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One of
the myths about task analysis is that it involves the detailed study of what people do.
It may, but effective task analyses can be done quickly and cheaply.
One
thing for sure, experts at a task are not very good at explaining their expert
performance.
Diaper, D. and Stanton, N.A. (2004) The
Handbook of Task Analysis for Human-Computer Interaction.
Dr. Diaper started his work on task analysis in 1982. He’s done a lot of research, only some of it published, including developing methods and applying them in private and public sector organisations. He has taught a lot of people, practitioners, academics and university students, how to undertake an appropriate task analysis for their needs.
DDD SYSTEMS provides education and training (Master Classes, seminars, etc.) on task analysis and a full range of consultancy services on task analysis. It should be noted, however, that over the last dozen years Dr. Diaper has integrated his work on task analysis into a philosophically and technically more sophisticated approach of general systems analysis, currently called the Systemic Analysis Method (SAM), and it is this that Dr. Diaper would prefer to apply on behalf of new clients.
WARNING – If you are new to task analysis, then you will find doing one very difficult if you just read some of the published literature. Doing a task analysis that is useful, and doing it efficiently and hence cheaply, is a highly expert skill because it requires applying a wide range of interdisciplinary knowledge. For example, expertise at applied psychology (e.g. cognitive, social and organisational) is necessary because, almost all the experts agree, tasks are what people do to achieve goals, and goals are psychological things.
If you are new to task analysis, then the best strategy is to go and talk to an expert. There are hundreds, and perhaps several thousand, experts on task analysis. Unfortunately, there are also people who do task analyses very badly. Talk to an expert – contact Dr. Dan Diaper.
GOOD NEWS – It isn’t that difficult to learn how to do task analyses suitable for your own needs. Dr. Diaper has taught task analysis to hundreds of people, practitioners, academics and students. DDD SYSTEMS will appropriately select and customise a method suitable for a client’s needs. Advice can be provided on dozens of critical issues: how to define the system of interest; what constitutes work and how it is measured; what are appropriate individual and collective psychological models; how to represent tasks; how to use a task analysis for design or other engineering purposes; … and so on and so on. Talk to an expert – contact Dr. Dan Diaper.
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