Investigation of structural properties of hazard mitigation arguments (2006)

Author(s): Sujan MA, Harrison MD

    Abstract: Arguing that a system is sufficiently safe to operate in a particular context is an important element in the development of safety-critical systems. Hazard mitigation arguments support safety claims by providing evidence. They do this, typically, by appealing to barriers intended to prevent and to protect from a specific hazard. The paper summarises work on the structure of arguments, and then addresses two research questions: how understanding of the quality of arguments can be applied to hazard mitigation arguments; how making the underlying implied barrier model explicit can improve the argumentation and provide useful in-sights for managing risks. The EUROCONTROL Reduced Vertical Separation Minima Functional Hazard Analysis (RVSM FHA) is used to demonstrate these ideas.

      • Date: 18-22 September 2006
      • Conference Name: Safety and Reliability for Managing Risk. Proceedings of the 15th European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL)
      • Volume: 3
      • Pages: 1869-1876
      • Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
      • Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. abstract)
      • Bibliographic status: Published
        Staff

        Emeritus Professor Michael Harrison
        Professor