Error Classification for Safety Management: Finding the Right Approach

Human error identification systems have been criticised for failing to consider the problems of operational incident investigators and system developers. Increasingly esoteric human error modelling and classification approaches have often been met with resistance from the potential user groups that could apply them with the greatest impact. In order to improve the transfer of this technology, error classification techniques must balance a range of criteria some more practical than have previously been considered. This paper provides an example of one such technique in air traffic management (ATM) ‘TRACEr lite’ that has been developed with practical aims in mind, while retaining its conceptual roots.