HTA: The Development and Use of Tools for Hierarchical Task Analysis in the UK Armed Forces and Elsewhere
Abstract
This report states that there is no consistent pattern of use for the Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) technique within the Armed Forces, or outside them, and that some parts of the Armed Forces are not aware of HTA as a technique. The lack of software-based tools to aid the HTA practitioner may be a contributory cause. Tools for the depiction or representation of an HTA are generally those such as Word Processors, Spreadsheets, Presentation Graphics and similar items of general purpose software, and usage tends to reflect the increasing dominance of Microsoft in the software market. A major part of this report concentrates on the development of HTA – from inception to present – to establish what an HTA may accomplish. A comparison of recently available software indicates that it is possible to incorporate current HTA theory and practice into a software tool, but this is not yet a commercial realisation.
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