Responsibility Modelling for the Sociotechnical Risk Analysis of Coalitions of Systems

Society is challenging systems engineers by demanding ever more complex and integrated systems. With the rise of cloud computing and systems-of-systems (including cyber-physical systems) we are entering an era where mission critical services and applications will be dependent upon `coalitions-of-systems'. Coalitions-of-systems (CoS) are a class of system similar to systems-of-systems but they differ in that they interact to further overlapping self-interests rather than an overarching mission. Assessing the sociotechnical risks associated with CoS is an open research question of societal importance as existing risk analysis techniques typically focus on the technical aspects of systems and ignore risks associated with coalition partners reneging on responsibilities or leaving the coalition. Through a case study of a cloud IT infrastructure migration we demonstrate that responsibility modeling based risk analysis enables the identification of these risks by exploring hazards that may arise when relying upon a coalition of human/organizational/technical agents to provision a service.