Risk Assessment in the Wild

Rea, A. and Hawkins, R.

This paper introduces an empirical research method for systems engineering based on the examination of work products. To illustrate the method we describe an investigation of safety risk assessment as it is actually recorded, rather than the standards, forms and procedures used to guide risk assessment. A body of risk assessments was collected via a combination of public search, freedom of information request, and private request. The risk assessments are from multiple domains, for multiple purposes, and follow diverse formats � the one thing that they have in common is that they are genuine work products. Due to the necessarily arbitrary selection process, the collection cannot resolve quantitative hypotheses about the distribution of phenomena. However, it provides an opportunity to explore assumptions and suspicions about the real-world conduct of risk assessment that cannot be examined by looking at academic literature or guidance documents.

Cite as: Rea, A. and Hawkins, R. (2012). Risk Assessment in the Wild. In Proc. Australian System Safety Conference 2012 (ASSC 2012) Brisbane, Australia. CRPIT, 145. Cant, T. Eds., ACS. 83-90

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