Over a period of several years a Guideline Committee of the Association of German Engineers (VDI) engaged in the development of a part of a guideline for computer-aided modelling and ergonomic evaluation of working people in digital factory tools. The subject of this part is to document the state of the art in analysis, evaluation and assessment of stresses and strains through work tasks. Broken down according to the separate aspects of engineering mechanics, it looks at existing anthropometric and physiological functionalities of evaluating human labour, with a distinction made between those that are already required as standard and those that are still considered to be optional and are only applied in a few procedures. It appears that the evaluation methods used often lead to different assessments, and that some necessary functions are not yet realized. Further progress is therefore required from an ergonomic perspective.