Cost-Justifying Human Factors Support — A Framework

This paper is part of a symposium on Cost-Justifying Human Factors Support. The preceding paper sets the stage for and motivates the topic. This paper provides a broad framework for performing a cost/benefit analysis for any collection of (or any single) human factors tasks and activities that might be added to a development project. Although the emphasis is on software human factors, the framework would apply equally well to hardware human factors projects. The perspectives of both vendor companies and internal data processing organizations serving internal users are taken into account. Other papers in the symposium offer particular case histories supporting the cost/benefit approach outlined here, and offer a manager's perspective on the cost/benefit analysis technique.