You Know This Folder.
Every Human Factors project starts the same way. A new folder. A spreadsheet for the issues register. A plan copied from the last job with the contents deleted. A standard read clause by clause. Here is that folder, twelve weeks in. Then the same project as one file.
- 00 Admin02/03/2026 8:52 AMFile folder
- 01 Standards02/03/2026 10:25 AMFile folder
- 02 Client returns30/06/2026 3:11 PMFile folder
- 03 Issued29/07/2026 5:40 PMFile folder
- AS 7470 clause extract.xlsx02/03/2026 11:38 AMMicrosoft Excel Worksheet87 KB
- Cab layout.blend02/03/2026 1:15 PMBlender File14,206 KB
- Cab layout v2.blend19/05/2026 4:02 PMBlender File15,880 KB
- EHFA - Cab Upgrade.docx02/03/2026 11:40 AMMicrosoft Word Document312 KB
- EHFA - Cab Upgrade v2.docx27/03/2026 2:18 PMMicrosoft Word Document598 KB
- EHFA - Cab Upgrade v2 (JW edits).docx02/04/2026 9:06 AMMicrosoft Word Document604 KB
- HF User Requirements.xlsx02/03/2026 10:10 AMMicrosoft Excel Worksheet24 KB
- HF User Requirements v2 traced.xlsx15/04/2026 5:31 PMMicrosoft Excel Worksheet141 KB
- HFIP - Cab Upgrade DRAFT.docx02/03/2026 9:30 AMMicrosoft Word Document1,204 KB
- HFIP - Cab Upgrade v0.2.docx13/03/2026 4:47 PMMicrosoft Word Document1,231 KB
- HFIP - Cab Upgrade v0.3 ISSUED.docx20/03/2026 11:02 AMMicrosoft Word Document1,238 KB
- HFIP - Cab Upgrade v0.3 ISSUED - client comments.docx07/04/2026 8:14 AMMicrosoft Word Document1,302 KB
- HFIP - Cab Upgrade v0.4 FINAL.docx10/04/2026 6:20 PMMicrosoft Word Document1,244 KB
- HFIP - Cab Upgrade v0.4 FINAL (2).docx11/04/2026 7:55 AMMicrosoft Word Document1,244 KB
- HFIR - Cab Upgrade.xlsx02/03/2026 9:05 AMMicrosoft Excel Worksheet19 KB
- HFIR - Cab Upgrade v2.xlsx24/04/2026 3:36 PMMicrosoft Excel Worksheet166 KB
- HFIR - Cab Upgrade v3 DO NOT EDIT.xlsx14/07/2026 4:52 PMMicrosoft Excel Worksheet212 KB
- HFIR - Cab Upgrade v3 working copy.xlsx04/09/2026 9:16 AMMicrosoft Excel Worksheet219 KB
- HTA - Cab Upgrade.vsdx09/03/2026 2:40 PMMicrosoft Visio Drawing438 KB
- HTA - Cab Upgrade v2.vsdx06/05/2026 10:58 AMMicrosoft Visio Drawing512 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev A.docx22/05/2026 5:09 PMMicrosoft Word Document4,118 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev B.docx12/06/2026 4:30 PMMicrosoft Word Document4,377 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev B (client comments).docx30/06/2026 3:11 PMMicrosoft Word Document4,402 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev C DRAFT - NP - FINAL.docx28/07/2026 2:26 PMMicrosoft Word Document4,510 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev C FINAL (2).docx28/07/2026 6:48 PMMicrosoft Word Document4,512 KB
- Cab Upgrade HF Programme.ergsphr04/09/2026 9:16 AMErgoSphere Project61,402 KB
Illustrative folder, twelve weeks into a rail cab upgrade. No client is named. You have seen every one of these files.
Monday Morning. New Project.
The tools were never the problem. There was nowhere to put the work.
Before a single task is analysed, the project has to be built. Not the system. The folder. Here is how that morning goes for a Human Factors practitioner, and what each file costs three months later.
The folder
Named the way the last one was named, which was named the way the one before that was named. Subfolders from memory.
The issues register
A blank workbook. You rebuild the columns from memory, or open the last project's register and delete the rows. ID, description, severity, owner, status, target date.
The integration plan
You find an old one. Keep the headings, delete the contents. The previous client's name survives in a header on page 14 until somebody notices.
The requirements
Another workbook. Empty for now. It is waiting for the standard.
The standard
You open AS 7470 and start reading for the clauses that apply. The applicable ones get copied out, by hand, into the requirements workbook. Applicability is decided as you go.
The early analysis
The same clauses go in again, from the workbook this time, because the EHFA has to cite them too.
The model
The cab, for the reach and vision work. It sits beside the documents. Nothing in the documents knows it exists.
Seven files. Five applications. No findings yet. And every one of them is already a version somebody will have to reconcile.
Which One Did the Client Get?
Revisions go out by email. The client marks up a copy and sends it back. Someone merges the comments into the working file, which by then has moved on. The register has moved on too, separately. So you sort by date modified and look for the current one.
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev A.docx22/05/2026 5:09 PM4,118 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev B.docx12/06/2026 4:30 PM4,377 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev B (client comments).docx30/06/2026 3:11 PM4,402 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev C DRAFT.docx14/07/2026 11:20 AM4,455 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev C DRAFT - NP.docx21/07/2026 3:57 PM4,490 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev C DRAFT - NP - FINAL.docx28/07/2026 2:26 PM4,510 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev C FINAL (2).docx28/07/2026 6:48 PM4,512 KB
- Report - Cab Upgrade Rev C.pdf29/07/2026 5:40 PM3,906 KB
Two files four hours apart. One of them became the PDF. Which one is not recorded anywhere.
Version control by filename is not version control. It is hope, with a suffix.
The questions you cannot answer from this folder:
- Which revision is the client holding right now?
- Which of their comments were answered in Rev C, and where?
- Who changed the severity on issue 17, and when?
- Does the register still agree with the report?
- Is the HFIP method set still what the project is actually doing?
- Which AS 7470 clauses were ruled applicable, and who ruled?
Not one of these is a Human Factors question. All of them are the questions you will be asked.
Now Do It in One File.
ErgoSphere is a Human Factors engineering platform. Requirements, standards, analysis, registers, plans and issued deliverables live in one project file, and every one of them references the others. Here is what each file in that folder becomes.
Issues Register
Every finding lands here from the tool that raised it, with severity, owner, target date and overdue state. One register, no working copy. It exports to ReqIF for IBM DOORS when the programme wants it.
Requirements, in the project
Traced to the clauses they come from and to the assessment evidence that answers them. Enter a requirement once. The EHFA, the HFIP and the close-out all read the same record.
Standards Register
AS 7470, MIL-STD-1472H, ISO 11064 and DEF STAN 00-25 load clause by clause. Each clause carries its applicability, compliance status, professional judgement, residual risk and linked evidence. Nothing is copied out.
HFIP, compiled
Written from the project's own method record, so the plan says what the project is doing. It compiles as Part III of the close-out, and it cannot drift from the work because it is the work.
EHFA, compiled
Part II of the same close-out, drawing on the same requirements and the same register. The requirement lives in one place and is cited from there.
Task analysis, as data
The task hierarchy is structured data in the project, not a picture of one. Downstream tools read it rather than re-type it, and the client walks it in the Viewer.
ErgoDesign 3D workspace
The cab model, a posable manikin and a MIL-STD-1472H visual field overlay, in the same project as the findings it produces. A reach failure is a finding, not a screenshot.
Deliverables: Rev A, Rev B, Rev C
Revision-lettered packages, sealed and carried with a manifest of what went in and what was left out. A Ready mark lapses the moment the content changes underneath it, so nothing stale can ship. Every issued revision's manifest and digest stay on record.
Returned review, in the file
The client opens the issued .ergview in the free Viewer, comments on the exact finding, and sends it back. Comments land in your review queue, anchored to the item they were written on, ready for Rev B to answer.
Version Control, Without the Suffix.
A revision in ErgoSphere is an event in a register, not a filename. Issue takes Rev A out the door as a sealed package with a manifest. The client's returned review comes back into the same project, against the same findings. Rev B answers it. Who issued what, when, and what came back is the project's own record, and hash-based integrity snapshots mean an altered byte reads as a mismatch, not a maybe.
Then Rev B answers Rev A's review. The loop is the register.
One project, one file
Store it, back it up and control it in whatever document management your organisation already runs. It is a file.
Runs locally
Project data stays on the practitioner's machine. No cloud account, no server to stand up, nothing transmitted.
Word, whenever you want it
Every report exports to a native DOCX with your template and your letterhead. Nothing about your own work is locked in.
Not Fifty-Three Tools. One Place to Work.
Human Factors has had tools. It has not had a platform. The fifty-three tools are the proof that this one is complete. The reason is the folder at the top of this page.
Need to take this to a manager? The business case, with the arithmetic already done.
