The term Task Analysis (TA) can be applied very broadly to encompass a wide variety of human factors techniques.

Nearly all task analysis techniques provide, as a minimum, a description of the observable aspects of operator behavior at various levels of detail, together with some indications of the structure of the task.

These will be referred to as action-oriented approaches. Other techniques focus on the mental processes which underlie observable behavior, e.g. decision-making and problem-solving. These will be referred to as cognitive approaches.