HSI Contracting and Acquisition Language Analysis Across DoD, Military, and Industry Instructions

Abstract

Human Systems Integration (HSI) is an essential aspect of the Department of Defense (DOD) systems acquisition process, as it takes a total system approach that aims tooptimize human performance while minimizing total system ownership costs. HSI is recognized as an essential effort to systems design and development across many governmentorganizations.Each organization has developed its own HSI instructions; however, as the Joint Human Systems Integration Working Group has identified, there is a lack of standardization across these instructions, especially in accordance with contractual language. This capstone includes 1) an analysis of overarching DOD directives and instructions, individual services’ instructions and guidance, and industry HSI standards to identify gaps focusing on contractual language; 2) an assessment of the level of HSI requirements throughout industry and military standards; and 3) recommendations for general HSI contract language best practices as well as specific domain example templates for SOW language looking across the acquisition process. This analysis revealed inconsistent language, unclear requirements, and a lack of standardizatio incontractual language regarding how and when HSI will be implemented. These deficiencies allow for excessive flexibility, which can potentially lead to inadequate or complete lack of HSI implementation in the systems engineering acquisition process. To address these issues, it is recommended that the instruction be standardized across government organizations via the higher-level DOD instructions, to include definitive language that details the specifics of how, when, and where HSI should be implemented as it relates to contractual requirements.