Method Advantages Disadvantages
Observation
* Firsthand information.
* Simple to use.
* Verifies data from other sources.
* Useful for manual and psychomotor tasks.
* Time consuming.
* May bias worker performance.
* Small sample size.
* Requires skilled observer.
* Validity & reliability may be problematic.
* Not useful for jobs consisting of mostly mental tasks.
Interview
* Incumbent describes work.
* Can yield data about cognitive and psychomotor processes difficult to observe.
* Qualitative data can be examined.
* Works well for jobs with long job cycles.
* Requires experienced interviewer and well-designed questions.
* Difficult to combine data from disparate interviews.
* Data gathered is subjective and should be verified.
* May elicit extraneous data.
Critical Incident
* Analysis is based on concrete behavior.
* Scales require some expertise to develop.
Diary
* Collects data as events happen.
* Consistent and continuous entries may be difficult to obtain.
* Data not in standardized format.
Checklist
* Inexpensive.
* Easy to administer.
* May not include all important parts of work.
Questionnaire
* Does not require trained interviewer.
* Relatively less expensive.
* Can reach more workers.
* Data is standardized (structured).
* May be difficult to construct.
* May have low response rate.
* Responses may be incomplete.
* Responses may be difficult to interpret (open-ended).
Technical Conference
* Data from experience is superior to observation.
* Data is comprehensive.
* SME's chosen for expertise and competence.
* SME's may have trouble breaking work into tasks and describing work.
* Time consuming.
* Differences in opinion need to be resolved to consensus.
Observation
* Firsthand information.
* Simple to use.
* Verifies data from other sources.
* Useful for manual and psychomotor tasks.
* Time consuming.
* May bias worker performance.
* Small sample size.
* Requires skilled observer.
* Validity & reliability may be problematic.
* Not useful for jobs consisting of mostly mental tasks.
Interview
* Incumbent describes work.
* Can yield data about cognitive and psychomotor processes difficult to observe.
* Qualitative data can be examined.
* Works well for jobs with long job cycles.
* Requires experienced interviewer and well-designed questions.
* Difficult to combine data from disparate interviews.
* Data gathered is subjective and should be verified.
* May elicit extraneous data.
Critical Incident
* Analysis is based on concrete behavior.
* Scales require some expertise to develop.
Diary
* Collects data as events happen.
* Consistent and continuous entries may be difficult to obtain.
* Data not in standardized format.
Checklist
* Inexpensive.
* Easy to administer.
* May not include all important parts of work.
Questionnaire
* Does not require trained interviewer.
* Relatively less expensive.
* Can reach more workers.
* Data is standardized (structured).
* May be difficult to construct.
* May have low response rate.
* Responses may be incomplete.
* Responses may be difficult to interpret (open-ended).
Technical Conference
* Data from experience is superior to observation.
* Data is comprehensive.
* SME's chosen for expertise and competence.
* SME's may have trouble breaking work into tasks and describing work.
* Time consuming.
* Differences in opinion need to be resolved to consensus.
