Qualitative analysis makes simple HRA methods a competitive alternative

This paper intends to illustrate how a well-conducted qualitative analysis reduces the importance of choosing a specific human reliability analysis method. This conclusion is motivated by the results of the research project International HRA Empirical Study where several human reliability analysis (HRA) methods were implemented and their individual results compared to empirical data. This paper focuses on the implementation of the HEART method within this study as conducted by the authors. HEART obtained highly competitive results, especially considering the traditional view of HEART as a "quick-and- dirty" approach. This paper explains how the competitive results are due to the underlying qualitative analysis conducted before HEART was applied. The competitive results for HEART illustrate how even a simplified method can get credible results when combined with good qualitative insights.