Capturing emerging complex interactions: Safety analysis in air traffic management

Endogenously Emergent Information Systems

“…This possibility of emergent features poses considerable reliability, safety and privacy challenges in the case of many information and software systems (e.g. [27,73,88]). Emergent features as security risks imply that the risk is not because of a local bug, but a result of complex interaction of the component systems, interaction that is extremely difficult to figure out during the design because of the complexity of the system and the question is about run-time interaction.…”

Trust Strategies and Policies in Complex Socio-technical Safety-Critical Domains: An Analysis of the Air Traffic Management Domain

“…Unfortunately, ATM systems and procedures have distinct characteristics (e.g., openness, volatility, etc.) that expose limitations of the approach [17,18,20,19]. ATM systems operate in open and dynamic environments where it is difficult completely to identify system interactions (e.g., between aircraft systems and ATM safety relevant systems) [17,18,20,19].…”

“…Hence, safety analysis has to take into account these complex interaction mechanisms (e.g., failure dependence, reliance in ATM, etc.) in order to guarantee and, possibly, increase the overall ATM safety as envisaged by the ATM 2000+ Strategy [17,18,20,19].…”

“…Although structured notations support the decomposition process, they face evolution [20]. However, It is possible to captures emergent complex interactions [17]. Modeling enables the characterization of evolutionary structures [21], although it is still required the identification of change strategies.…”

“…Moreover, systems may act as a means of communication/mediation between human beings. Complex interactions [17] emerge as results of changes (e.g., environmental changes, new computer systems, adjusted work practices, etc.). The introduction of new technology often requires the re-negotiation of social organizations (e.g., responsibility and accountability) as well as overall system features (e.g., safety).…”