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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1987

Cockpit Resource Management (CRM): A tool for improved flight safety (United Airlines CRM training)

The approach and methodology used in developing cockpit management skills is effective because of the following features: (1) A comparative method of learning is used enabling crewmembers to study different forms of teamwork. (2) The learning comes about as a result of crewmembers learning from one another instead of from an expert instructor. (3) Key elements of cockpit teamwork and effective management are studied so that crewmembers can determine how these elements can improve safety and problem solving. (4) Critique among the crewmembers themselves rather than from outsiders is used as a common focusing point for crews to provide feedback to one another on how each can be a more effective crewmember. (5) The training is continuous in the sense that it becomes part of recurrent, upgrade, and other forms of crewmember training and development. And (6) the training results in sound and genuine insights that come about through solid education as opposed to tutoring, coaching, or telling crewmembers how to behave more effectively.

Carroll, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Shared visions: Partnership of Rockwell International and NASA Cost Effectiveness Enhancements (CEE) for the space shuttle system integration program

As a result of limited resources and tight fiscal constraints over the past several years, the defense and aerospace industries have experienced a downturn in business activity. The impact of fewer contracts being awarded has placed a greater emphasis for effectiveness and efficiency on industry contractors. It is clear that a reallocation of resources is required for America to continue to lead the world in space and technology. The key to technological and economic survival is the transforming of existing programs, such as the Space Shuttle Program, into more cost efficient programs so as to divert the savings to other NASA programs. The partnership between Rockwell International and NASA and their joint improvement efforts that resulted in significant streamlining and cost reduction measures to Rockwell International Space System Division's work on the Space Shuttle System Integration Contract is described. This work was a result of an established Cost Effectiveness Enhancement (CEE) Team formed initially in Fiscal Year 1991, and more recently expanded to a larger scale CEE Initiative in 1992. By working closely with the customer in agreeing to contract content, obtaining management endorsement and commitment, and involving the employees in total quality management (TQM) and continuous improvement 'teams,' the initial annual cost reduction target was exceeded significantly. The CEE Initiative helped reduce the cost of the Shuttle Systems Integration contract while establishing a stronger program based upon customer needs, teamwork, quality enhancements, and cost effectiveness. This was accomplished by systematically analyzing, challenging, and changing the established processes, practices, and systems. This examination, in nature, was work intensive due to the depth and breadth of the activity. The CEE Initiative has provided opportunities to make a difference in the way Rockwell and NASA work together - to update the methods and processes of the organizations. The future success of NASA space programs and Rockwell hinges upon the ability to adopt new, more efficient and effective work processes. Efficiency, proficiency, cost effectiveness, and teamwork are a necessity for economic survival. Continuous improvement initiatives like the CEE are, and will continue to be, vehicles by which the road can be traveled with a vision to the future.

Bejmuk, Bohdan I.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Upward appraisal as a means for improving supervisory performance and promoting process improvement, with long-term implications for organizational change

This study represents the implementation phase of an organizational development project which was initiated last year in the Management Support Division (MSD) at Langley Research Center to diagnose organizational functioning. As a result of MSD survey data from last year's effort, a Quality Action Team was created to address the responses compiled from the MSD Organizational Assessment Questionnaire and Follow-Up Questionnaire. The team was officially named the MSD Employee Relations Improvement Team (MERIT). MERIT's goal was to analyze major concerns generated by the questionnaires and to present feasible solutions to management which would improve supervisory performance, promote process improvement; and ultimately, lead to a better organization. The team met weekly and was very disciplined in following guidelines needed to ensure a fully functioning team. Several TQM tools were used during the team process, including brainstorming and the cause and effect diagram. One of the products produced by MERIT was a 'report card', more formally known as an upward appraisal system, to evaluate supervisory performance in the division office, its three branches, and in teams. Major areas of emphasis on the 47 item report card were those identified by employees through the previously administered questionnaires as needing to be improved; specifically, training, recognition, teamwork, supervision and leadership, and communication. MERIT created an enlarged and modified version of the report card which enabled scores for each individual supervisor to be recorded on a separate form, along with summary results and employee comments. Report card results have been compiled and fed back to the Division Chief and Assistant Division Chief. These individuals will in turn, feed the results back to the remaining supervisors and the team leaders. Although results differ among supervisors, some similarities exist. Communication generally appears to be adequate, which represents an improvement over last year. In contrast, recognition and teamwork are the two major areas where improvement in supervisory performance seems to be most needed. The initial report card results will serve as a baseline against which future performance ratings will be compared. Once supervisors have been presented with their data and given an opportunity to analyze and discus the results, they will be assisted in developing an action plan for improving their performance and work processes. They will be provided with ongoing support from management in following through with the action plan.

Siegfeldt, Denise V.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Activation Energy

Teaming is so common in today's project management environment that most of us assume it comes naturally. We further assume that when presented with meaningful and challenging work, project teams will naturally engage in productive activity to complete their tasks. This assumption is expressed in the simple (but false) equation: Team + Work = Teamwork. Although this equation appears simple and straightforward, it is far from true for most project organizations whose reality is a complex web of institutional norms based on individual achievement and rewards. This is illustrated by the very first successful team experience from my early Air Force career. As a young lieutenant, I was sent to Squadron Officer School, which was the first in the series of Air Force professional military education courses I was required to complete during my career. We were immediately formed into teams of twelve officers. Much of the course featured competition between these teams. As the most junior member of my team, I quickly observed the tremendous pressure to show individual leadership capability. At one point early in the course, almost everyone in our group was vying to become the team leader. This conflict was so intense that it caused us to fail miserably in our first outdoor team building exercise. We spent so much time fighting over leadership that we were unable to complete any of the events on the outdoor obstacle course. This complete lack of success was so disheartening to me that I gave our team little hope for future success. What followed was a very intense period of bickering, conflict, and even shouting matches as our dysfunctional team tried to cope with our early failures and find some way to succeed. British physician and researcher Wilfred Bion (Experiences in Groups, 1961) discovered that there are powerful psychological forces inherent in all groups that divert from accomplishing their primary tasks. To overcome these restraining forces and use the potential power of the team, greater emphasis must be placed on establishing and maintaining group cohesiveness. This relationship is expressed in the revised (true) mathematical equation: Team + Work (on the Team) = Teamwork.

Gadeken, Owen↗
NASA NTRS2005

Towards the Verification of Human-Robot Teams

Human-Agent collaboration is increasingly important. Not only do high-profile activities such as NASA missions to Mars intend to employ such teams, but our everyday activities involving interaction with computational devices falls into this category. In many of these scenarios, we are expected to trust that the agents will do what we expect and that the agents and humans will work together as expected. But how can we be sure? In this paper, we bring together previous work on the verification of multi-agent systems with work on the modelling of human-agent teamwork. Specifically, we target human-robot teamwork. This paper provides an outline of the way we are using formal verification techniques in order to analyse such collaborative activities. A particular application is the analysis of human-robot teams intended for use in future space exploration.

Fisher, Michael↗
NASA NTRS2010

Space Flight Resource Management for ISS Operations

Although the astronaut training flow for the International Space Station (ISS) spans 2 years, each astronaut or cosmonaut often spends most of their training alone. Rarely is it operationally feasible for all six ISS crewmembers to train together, even more unlikely that crewmembers can practice living together before launch. Likewise, ISS Flight Controller training spans 18 months of learning to manage incredibly complex systems remotely in plug-and-play ground teams that have little to no exposure to crewmembers before a mission. How then do all of these people quickly become a team - a team that must respond flexibly yet decisively to a variety of situations? The answer implemented at NASA is Space Flight Resource Management (SFRM), the so-called "soft skills" or team performance skills. Based on Crew Resource Management, SFRM was developed first for shuttle astronauts and focused on managing human errors during time-critical events (Rogers, et al. 2002). Given the nature of life on ISS, the scope of SFRM for ISS broadened to include teamwork during prolonged and routine operations (O'Keefe, 2008). The ISS SFRM model resembles a star with one competency for each point: Communication, Cross-Culture, Teamwork, Decision Making, Team Care, Leadership/Followership, Conflict Management, and Situation Awareness. These eight competencies were developed with international participation by the Human Behavior and Performance Training Working Group. Over the last two years, these competencies have been used to build a multi-modal SFRM training flow for astronaut candidates and flight controllers that integrates team performance skills into the practice of technical skills. Preliminary results show trainee skill increases as the flow progresses; and participants find the training invaluable to performing well and staying healthy during ISS operations. Future development of SFRM training will aim to help support indirect handovers as ISS operations evolve further with the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program.

Schmidt, Lacey L.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Managing the Right Projects: Best Practices to Align Project and Corporate Strategies

If there's a human endeavor that exemplifies teamwork, it is space exploration. And that teamwork absolutely cannot happen effectively if the boots on the ground the people doing the work - don't understand how their work aligns with the larger goal. This presentation will discuss some best management practices from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center that have succeeded in helping employees become informed, engaged and committed to the space agency's important missions. Specific topics include: Alignment Criteria: Linking Projects To Corporate Strategy. Resource Management: Best Practices For Resource Management. Strategic Analysis: Supporting Decision Making In A Changing Environment. Communication Strategies: Best Practices To Communicate Change. Benefits Achieved And Lessons Learned.

Watkins, Bobby↗
NASA NTRS2017

Application of Human-Autonomy Teaming to an Advanced Ground Station for Reduced Crew Operations

Within human factors there is burgeoning interest in the "human-autonomy teaming" (HAT) concept as a way to address the challenges of interacting with complex, increasingly autonomous systems. The HAT concept comes out of an aspiration to interact with increasingly autonomous systems as a team member, rather than simply use automation as a tool. The authors, and others, have proposed core tenets for HAT that include bi-directional communication, automation and system transparency, and advanced coordination between human and automated teammates via predefined, dynamic task sequences known as "plays." It is believed that, with proper implementation, HAT should foster appropriate teamwork, thus increasing trust and reliance on the system, which in turn will reduce workload, increase situation awareness, and improve performance. To this end, HAT has been demonstrated and/or studied in multiple applications including search and rescue operations, healthcare and medicine, autonomous vehicles, photography, and aviation. The current paper presents one such effort to apply HAT. It details the design of a HAT agent, developed by Human Automation Teaming Solutions, Inc., to facilitate teamwork between the automation and the human operator of an advanced ground dispatch station. This dispatch station was developed to support a NASA project investigating a concept called Reduced Crew Operations (RCO); consequently, we have named the agent R-HATS. Part of the RCO concept involves a ground operator providing enhanced support to a large number of aircraft with a single pilot on the flight deck. When assisted by R-HATS, operators can monitor and support or manage a large number of aircraft and use plays to respond in real-time to complicated, workload-intensive events (e.g., an airport closure). A play is a plan that encapsulates goals, tasks, and a task allocation strategy appropriate for a particular situation. In the current implementation, when a play is initiated by a user, R-HATS determines what tasks need to be completed and has the ability to autonomously execute them (e.g., determining diversion options and uplinking new routes to aircraft) when it is safe and appropriate. R-HATS has been designed to both support end users and researchers in RCO and HAT. Additionally, R-HATS and its underlying architecture were developed with generalizability in mind as a modular software applicable outside of RCO/aviation domains. This paper will also discuss future further development and testing of RHATS.

automation↗
DOE OSTI2014

Modeling and Quantification of Team Performance in Human Reliability Analysis for Probabilistic Risk Assessment

Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) and Human Reliability Assessment (HRA) are important technical contributors to the United States (U.S.) Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) risk-informed and performance based approach to regulating U.S. commercial nuclear activities. Furthermore, all currently operating commercial NPPs in the U.S. are required by federal regulation to be staffed with crews of operators. Yet, aspects of team performance are underspecified in most HRA methods that are widely used in the nuclear industry. There are a variety of "emergent" team cognition and teamwork errors (e.g., communication errors) that are 1) distinct from individual human errors, and 2) important to understand from a PRA perspective. The lack of robust models or quantification of team performance is an issue that affects the accuracy and validity of HRA methods and models, leading to significant uncertainty in estimating HEPs. This paper describes research that has the objective to model and quantify team dynamics and teamwork within NPP control room crews for risk informed applications, thereby improving the technical basis of HRA, which improves the risk-informed approach the NRC uses to regulate the U.S. commercial nuclear industry.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Function allocation for humans and automation in the context of team dynamics

Within Human Factors Engineering, a decision-making process called function allocation (FA) is used during the design life cycle of complex systems to distribute the system functions, often identified through a functional requirements analysis, to all human and automated machine agents (or teammates) involved in controlling the system. Most FA methods make allocation decisions primarily by comparing the capabilities of humans and automation, but then also by considering secondary factors such as cost, regulations, and the health and safety of workers. The primary analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of humans and machines, however, is almost always considered in terms of individual human or machine capabilities. Yet, FA is fundamentally about teamwork in that the goal of the FA decision-making process is to determine what are the optimal allocations of functions among agents. Given this framing of FA, and the increasing use of and sophistication of automation, there are two related social psychological issues that current FA methods need to address more thoroughly. First, many principles for effective human teamwork are not considered as central decision points or in the iterative hypothesis and testing phase in most FA methods, when it is clear that social factors have numerous positive and negative effects on individual and team capabilities. Second, social psychological factors affecting team performance and can be difficult to translate to automated agents, and most FA methods currently do not account for this effect. The implications for these issues are discussed.

Automation↗
DOE OSTI2020

Managing Hanford's Direct Feed Low Activity Waste Program - 20002

The Office of River Protection (ORP) is responsible for the management and completion of the River Protection Project (RPP) mission, which comprises both the Hanford Site tank farms operations and the completion and operation of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant Project. The RPP mission is to safely retrieve, treat, and immobilize Hanford's high-level and low-activity tank waste and close the tank farms to protect the Columbia River. The Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) Program is a major subset of the overall RPP mission, providing disposition of low-activity waste. The scope is to retrieve, treat, and immobilize the low-activity waste at the Low-Activity Waste Facility. DFLAW will begin operations no later than December 2023. The DFLAW Program overarches a suite of individual projects, activities, and infrastructure upgrades. The major projects and activities include multiple contractors under both ORP and the Richland Operations Office, underscoring the need for effective integration, coordination, and collaboration. The objectives of the DFLAW Program leadership team are to: - Effectively coordinate and integrate the projects that comprise the DFLAW Program - Manage the interfaces between the projects so that the integrated DFLAW Program is completed successfully - Ensure the DFLAW portfolio of projects operate as required without gaps or conflicts at the interfaces. DOE is accomplishing these objectives through a newly established leadership model that integrates the DOE and contractor work streams and promotes a teamwork model to enable collaborative success. Long considered one of the most formidable cleanup challenges at Hanford, the Department of Energy and its contractors are on the verge of achieving a cleanup commitment that has been decades in the making. DOE is preparing to vitrify (turn to glass) Hanford's chemical and radioactive tank waste using the DFLAW process. The Modified Consent Decree milestone for completing hot commissioning of the Hanford Site's Low- Activity Waste Facility is Dec. 31, 2023. While this milestone may seem distant under normal project management circumstances, it is a relatively short period of time for the operational and cultural transformation necessary to successfully begin treating tank waste at Hanford. Direct feed means separating the waste at a tank farm to remove the more radioactive portion (i.e., solids and cesium) so that the resulting low-activity (less radioactive) waste can be fed directly to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant's Low-Activity Waste Facility. Starting DFLAW will require a singular, intensive leadership focus, along with a sustained, collective commitment to excellence and teamwork by the Department and its contractors. Major upgrades to Hanford's infrastructure will occur prior to startup. Supporting DFLAW operations requires significant integration between the DFLAW facilities - the Waste Treatment Plant, Hanford's tank farms, effluent treatment facilities, disposal facilities - and between all of the site contractors to achieve success. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2024

Best practices: Organizational execution

This article, the fourth and final installment in the DOE–IDEA series, focuses on organizational execution and how strong management practices, teamwork, and preparedness contribute to successful district energy systems. It highlights case studies from Ashley Energy and Cornell University to illustrate effective operational strategies. Ashley Energy demonstrates the importance of emergency preparedness and rapid response. After a major flood disrupted its plant, the organization restored service in under 72 hours by relying on pre-established plans, vendor relationships, and trained staff. The case emphasizes proactive contingency planning, understanding insurance processes, and empowering skilled personnel to improvise during crises. Cornell University’s example highlights the role of collaboration and transparency in long-term success. Its district energy system benefits from strong data sharing, real-time energy monitoring, and active involvement of faculty and students in system planning and innovation. This culture of teamwork and data-driven decision-making supports sustainability goals and continuous system improvement. Overall, the article shows that effective organizational execution—through preparedness, collaboration, and data transparency—is essential for maintaining reliable, efficient, and sustainable district energy systems.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
DOE OSTI2013

Framework for Human-Automation Collaboration: Conclusions from Four Studies

The Human Automation Collaboration (HAC) research project is investigating how advanced technologies that are planned for Advanced Small Modular Reactors (AdvSMR) will affect the performance and the reliability of the plant from a human factors and human performance perspective. The HAC research effort investigates the consequences of allocating functions between the operators and automated systems. More specifically, the research team is addressing how to best design the collaboration between the operators and the automated systems in a manner that has the greatest positive impact on overall plant performance and reliability. Oxstrand et al. (2013 - March) describes the efforts conducted by the researchers to identify the research needs for HAC. The research team reviewed the literature on HAC, developed a model of HAC, and identified gaps in the existing knowledge of human-automation collaboration. As described in Oxstrand et al. (2013 – June), the team then prioritized the research topics identified based on the specific needs in the context of AdvSMR. The prioritization was based on two sources of input: 1) The preliminary functions and tasks, and 2) The model of HAC. As a result, three analytical studies were planned and conduced; 1) Models of Teamwork, 2) Standardized HAC Performance Measurement Battery, and 3) Initiators and Triggering Conditions for Adaptive Automation. Additionally, one field study was also conducted at Idaho Falls Power.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS2012

Using Collaborative Engineering to Inform Collaboration Engineering

Collaboration is a critical competency for modern organizations as they struggle to compete in an increasingly complex, global environment. A large body of research on collaboration in the workplace focuses both on teams, investigating how groups use teamwork to perform their task work, and on the use of information systems to support team processes ("collaboration engineering"). This research essay presents collaboration from an engineering perspective ("collaborative engineering"). It uses examples from professional and student engineering teams to illustrate key differences in collaborative versus collaboration engineering and investigates how challenges in the former can inform opportunities for the latter.

Collaboration Engineering↗
DOE OSTI2021

Expert Text Analysis in the Inclusion of History and Philosophy of Science in Higher Education

The history and philosophy of science (HPS) plays a special role in education. An elective HPS course onthe philosophy of scientific experimentation for young scientists and graduate students of natural scienceis presented. The course bears a pragmatic character, and its main aims include the development of criticalthinking (CT), familiarization with philosophical problems in the relevant areas of knowledge, and thecultivation of a taste for reflective, critical analysis, both individual and group-based, which contributes todeeper understanding of the features of scientific practice in the context of modern complex groupcooperation. Students are offered a classical HPS program that included debates on the relationship betweenempiricism and rationalism, the role of Kant’s transcendental philosophy, modern topics associated withthe practical success of rationalism in the emergence of modern natural science, and the theory-ladennessof experimentation. Particular attention during the course is paid to the problems of megascience, theinclusion of which is justified by the specifics of the students’ engagement with science, technology,engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Emphasis is placed on the structure and typology of the collectivesubject in the modern educational process as well as in experimental practice. Lessons on the methodologyof expert text analysis (META), which are aimed at the development of critical thinking skills and thecreation of an interdisciplinary discussion space, are included in the course and relied on the example ofthe history and philosophy of high energy physics to motivate professional reflection. META classesincluded in the course prepare graduate students for teamwork in big science, proto-megascience, andmegascience. The course offers practical recommendations that could be applied to students’ own researchand could be useful for practitioners.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Collaboration in Health Care

Health care involves the participation of patients, family, and a diverse team of often highly specialized health care professionals. Involvement of all these team members in a cooperative and coordinated way is essential to providing exceptional care. This article introduces key concepts relating to interprofessional collaborative teamwork. Approaches to measuring and studying collaboration and evidence demonstrating the benefits of collaboration are presented. The structural, psychological, and educational factors which may determine collaborative behaviour are described.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2014

The SACADA database for human reliability and human performance

Lack of appropriate and sufficient human performance data has been identified as a key factor affecting human reliability analysis (HRA) quality especially in the estimation of human error probability (HEP). The Scenario Authoring, Characterization, and Debriefing Application (SACADA) database was developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to address this data need. An agreement between NRC and the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC) was established to support the SACADA development with aims to make the SACADA tool suitable for implementation in the nuclear power plants' operator training program to collect operator performance information. The collected data would support the STPNOC's operator training program and be shared with the NRC for improving HRA quality. This paper discusses the SACADA data taxonomy, the theoretical foundation, the prospective data to be generated from the SACADA raw data to inform human reliability and human performance, and the considerations on the use of simulator data for HRA. Each SACADA data point consists of two information segments: context and performance results. Context is a characterization of the performance challenges to task success. The performance results are the results of performing the task. The data taxonomy uses a macrocognitive functions model for the framework. At a high level, information is classified according to the macrocognitive functions of detecting the plant abnormality, understanding the abnormality, deciding the response plan, executing the response plan, and team related aspects (i.e., communication, teamwork, and supervision). The data are expected to be useful for analyzing the relations between context, error modes and error causes in human performance.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Electronic Visualization Laboratory's 50th Anniversary Retrospective: Look to the Future, Build on the Past

September 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). EVL's introduction of the CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment in 1992, the first widely replicated, projection-based, walk-in, virtual-reality (VR) system in the world, put EVL at the forefront of collaborative, immersive data exploration and analytics. However, the journey did not begin then. Since its founding in 1973, EVL has been developing tools and techniques for real-time, interactive visualizations—pillars of VR. But EVL's culture is also relevant to its successes, as it has always been an interdisciplinary lab that fosters teamwork, where each person's expertise contributes to the development of the necessary tools, hardware, system software, applications, and human interface models to solve problems. Over the years, as multidisciplinary collaborations evolved and advanced scientific instruments and data resources were distributed globally, the need to access and share data and visualizations while working with colleagues, local and remote, synchronous and asynchronous, also became important fields of study. This paper is a retrospective of EVL's past 50 years that surveys the many networked, immersive, collaborative visualization and VR systems and applications it developed and deployed, as well as lessons learned and future plans.

Johnson, Andrew E.↗