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I'm currently doing some preliminary research on the concept of "points
of failure", an approach that (I believe) originated in engineering
practice and has been used more recently in software engineering (e.g.,
"formal methods"). In essence, an analysis of points of failure is an
approach that examines a product to determine how users can fail when
using the product, whether because of the design, the operational
context, or human error.
This has obvious applications in creating documentation, and that's why
I'm interested in pursuing this.
Any recommendations for reading material? I will gradually do a Web
search to see what turns up (as time permits), so at this point, I'm
more interested in personal recommendations of high-quality material
rather than the flea market approach that a Web search entails. I'm
sure there's gold out there, but there's much more dross, and I'd
rather start with the gold before I start sifting through the dross.
<g>
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