ABSTRACT
Rapid advances in soft ware and hardware have provided the capability to develop very complex systems that have highly interrelated components. Although this has permitted signifi cant effi ciency and has allowed the development and operation of systems that were previously impossible (e.g., negative stability aircraft ), it has also brought the danger of system-induced catastrophes. Perrow (1984) argued that highly coupled complex systems (i.e., having highly interdependent components) are inherently unstable with a disposition toward massive failure. Th is potential instability has made the human factors-based evaluation more important than it has been in the past; while the component coupling had made the traditional modular evaluation methods obsolete.
