ABSTRACT
In the new view of human error: Human error is not a cause of failure. Human error is the effect, or symptom, of deeper trouble. Human error is not random. It is systematically connected to features of people's tools, tasks and operating environment. Human error is not the conclusion of an investigation. What are the sources of people's difficulties? Investigations target what lies behind the error—the organizational trade-offs pushed down into individual operating units. The new view of human error wants to understand why people made the assessments or decisions they made—why the assessments or decisions would have made sense from the point of view inside the situation. The Field Guide intends to help the author investigates human error according to the new view. It intends to help he identifies how people's assessments and actions made sense to them, according to the circumstances at the time.
