Socio-technical systems approach

In Chap. 3 Bryan Moser and Ralph Wood describe CE processes as complex programs, which require a socio-technical systems approach. They introduce the background of an approach, called Project Design, for modeling projects and to simulate likely outcomes, which is further explained in Chap. 8. 

This paper has proposed a novel approach combining existing notions of responsibility modeUing with hazard/risk based data to allow improved analysis of socio-technical systems. In doing so we have a developed a technique that goes beyond the capabilities of many of the existing technically focused analysis techniques, and applied this in a topical case study. 

Error, when seen in terms of human performance variability within the complex socio-technical system, is stochastic in nature. It is frequently unpredictable, and as such demands a composite approach to risk mitigation. To this end, highly deterministic approaches to error tolerance, which build defences in depth as protective layers built in serial, may not be the most effective approach. Resilience engineering, in contrast, must continue to adopt organic approaches that build defences in parallel, in order to defend against the naturally complex trajectories of error. 

A sound causation model for hazards-related incidents must take into consideration the entirety of the socio-technical system— applying a holistic approach to both the technical aspects and the social aspects of operations. It must be understood that those aspects are interdependent and mutually inclusive. 

As written in the Definitions, the term socio-technical system pertains to the interrelatedness of the social and technical aspects of an organization. The term is commonly used in sociology, psychology, and human factors engineering. Quite probably, safety professionals will see a more frequent use of the term in their literature. It implies taking a holistic approach to operational risk management—emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts. 

Professor James Reason and his colleagnes from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom developed a conceptnal and theoretical approach to the safety of large, complex, socio-technical systems. Drawing on the work of Reasort, ICAM identifies the workplace factors that contribute to an incident and the organizational deficiencies within the system that act as its precirrsors. 

Keywords Modehng approaches. Avionics, Socio-technical systems. 

The vulnerability analysis follows from and develops further a generic approach to risk assessment for socio-technical systems ... 

Keywords Development ethics Ethics of technology Capability approach Engineering ethics Design Socio-technical systems... 

The surveyed DRM methods are Dynamic Event Trees Dynamic Flowgraph Methodology Discrete state-transition approaches (Markov chains, Petri Nets extensions) Dynamic Bayesian Networks Direct system simulation DRM for aircraft certification TOPAZ (Traffic Organization and Perturbation Analyzer) SoTeRia (Socio-Technical Risk Analysis) FRAM (Functional Resonance Analysis Method) STPA Hazard analysis (Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis) Collision Risk Modelling Encounter-based model methodology. For references and brief descriptions of all these methods, refer to (DRM D04 2012). 

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