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Consensus Decision Making
A system safety engineer should not base an important decision or judgment simply upon a single professional or (worse) a personal opinion. Collective knowledge, expertise and experience can enhance system safety efforts, if properly applied. How these tools are acquired and used is essential, and appropriate consensus decision making is a means of collectively integrating them. Analyses can be facilitated to utilize the most appropriate subject matter experts (SME) with knowledge, expertise and experience.
A consensus is a process for group decision making. It enables a group of SMEs to come to an agreement. The input, ideas and professional opinions of all participants are gathered and integrated to arrive at a final decision acceptable to all. The consensus process allows SMEs to work through differences and reach a mutual agreement. Consensus does indicate that the decision made is necessarily the best one possible. Consensus also indicates that, in coming to a particular decision, participants feel that their position on the matter was either misunderstood or was given appropriate consideration.
All participants must be able to express themselves and their professional judgments. Consensus assures that all participants have the right to speak and be heard. A facilitator aids the group in defining decisions that need to be made, helps them reach an agreement, keeps the meeting moving, focuses discussion to the point at hand and makes sure everyone has the opportunity to participate. He or she also formulates and tests to see if consensus has been reached. Facilitators help direct the process of the meeting, not its content. They should never make decisions for the group.
During safety reviews, consensus can be applied to enhance analysis and provide peer review of system safety activities. However, note that there are additional rules that apply when using consensus in system safety. Specifically, there are many axioms that must be applied within system safety, safety engineering and safety management. These axioms are discussed throughout this paper and many of the safety-related references. In applying these axioms, true consensus may be affected.
Conclusion
There are many formal methods within decision analysis that can be applied toward safety-related decisions. This paper provides a cursory overview of example decision analysis methods that can be applied to evaluate safety or risk-based alternatives. Specifically, the use of a pay-off table, the development of a safety trade-off table, and the application of consensus decision making were addressed. Consult the references for information concerning many other methods that can be applied to a safety-related decision.
References
1. Anderson, D.R., D.J. Sweeney and T.A. Williams. An Introduction to Management Science: Quantitative Approaches to Decision Making, Boston: West Publishing Co., 1976.
2. Anthony, R.N. Management Accounting: Test and Cases, Scarborough, ON, Canada: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1970, pp. 451 to 477.
3. Raheja D.G. and M. Allocco. Assurance Technologies Principles and Practices — A Product, Process, and System Safety Perspective, Second Edition, Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley Interscience, 2006.
About the Author
Mike Allocco has been employed in safety management, system safety and safety engineering since 1976. He has conducted hazard analysis and risk assessments of nuclear and conventional weapon systems, the International Space Station, various aircrafts, aircraft ground systems, medical devices, railroad systems, tunnel boring machines, complex processes and facilities. Mike is coauthor (with Dev Raheja) of Assurance Technologies Principles and Practices — A Product, Process, and System Safety Perspective, Second Edition. He has conducted system safety engineering on diverse complex systems for the general industry, DOT, DoD, DOE and NASA. He is a Fellow and a former executive vice president of the System Safety Society, and is a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland, Mechanical Engineering Department, teaching an upper-level course in system safety engineering. He is currently employed at the FAA.
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