Welcome to the SCSC Service Assurance Working Group (SAWG) area.

The next SCSC Service Assurance Working Group meeting (SAWG#51) will be held by Zoom, 4th October 2023 from 16:00-17:30. Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85170930073?pwd=cGQ3WGkwZUdEVUJOWHB3cUhWSElsdz09

Please contact mike.parsons@scsc.uk if you would like to attend.

A new version of the Service Assurance Guidance document (v3.1) was published at SSS'23.

Also at SSS'23, a poster on service assurance was presented by the WG.

A paper setting out A Service Analysis of the Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire Accident was presented at SSS'23

The third version of the Service Assurance Guidance Document was released at SSS'22 in February 2022. This is also available in hardcopy from Amazon, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Service-Assurance-Guidance-V3-0-Parsons/dp/B09NRH6VDP

An update presentation on the work of the group was given at SSS'22. 

A paper on applying service assurance to a motorways example was presented at SSS'22.

An SCSC Newsletter Article on the Service Assurance Guidance document was published in May 2020.

Two presentations on service assurance were given at SSS'20 in February 2020:

1. A Service Perspective on Accidents

2. Service Assurance Working Group Report

Two presentations on service assurance were given at SSS'19 in February 2019:

06 - Simpson - Principles of Service Assurance

07 - King - Service Assurance in a Challenging Environment 

This paper on service-based assurance describing progress to date was presented at SSS'18.

Minutes of Meetings

Meeting #50, 21st June 2023, Zoom

Meeting #49, 10th May 2023, Zoom

Meeting #48, 23rd March 2023, Zoom

Meeting #47, 18th January 2023, Zoom

Meeting #46, 8th December 2022, BAE Systems and Zoom

Meeting #45, 20th October 2022, Govey Towers and Zoom

Meeting #44, 20th September 2022, Zoom

Meeting #43, 28th July 2022, Zoom

Meeting #42, 22nd June 2022, Zoom

Meeting #41, 4th May 2022, Zoom

Meeting #40, 31st March 2022, BAE Systems Portsmouth and Zoom

Meeting #39, 12th January 2022, Zoom

Meeting #38, 8th December 2021, Zoom

Meeting #37, 10th November 2021, Zoom

Meeting #36, 21st September 2021, Zoom

SAWG-AT Meeting #1, 11th August 2021, Zoom

Meeting #35, 27th July 2021, Meet

Meeting #34, 16th June 2021, Meet

Meeting #33, 21st April 2021, Meet

Meeting #32, 9th March 2021, Meet

Meeting #31, 3rd February 2021, Meet

Meeting #30, 6th January 2021, Meet

Meeting #29, 2nd December 2020, Meet

Meeting #28, 4th November 2020, Meet

Meeting #27, 30th September 2020, Teams

Meeting #26, 26th August  2020, Teams

Meeting #25, 22nd July 2020, Teams 

Meeting #24, 17th June 2020, Teleconference

Meeting #23, 20th May 2020, Teleconference

Meeting #22, 22nd April 2020, Teleconference

Meeting #21, 24th March 2020, Teleconference

Meeting #20, 22nd January 2020, Ebeni, Corsham 

Meeting #19, 11th December 2019, Teleconf (no formal minutes produced, but agreement to issue Guidance Document V1.0 at SSS)

Meeting #18, 20th November 2019, Thales, Reading

Meeting #17, 1st October 2019, Atkins, Aldershot

Meeting #16, 25th June 2019, Aktins, Aldershot

Meeting #15, 14th May 2019, BAE Systems, London

Meeting #14, 20th March 2019, CGI London/Webex

Meeting #13, 18th January 2019, Teleconf/Webex

Meeting #12, 20th November 2018, NATS

Meeting #11, 18th September 2018, BAE London

Meeting #10, 27th June 2018, NATS

Meeting #9, 15th May 2018, Portsmouth Naval Base

Meeting #8, 16th March 2018, NATS

Meeting #7, 17th January 2018, QinetiQ

Meeting #6, 23rd November 2017, Thales

Meeting #5, 4th October 2017, NATS

Meeting #4, 7th September 2017, BAE

Meeting #3, 21st June 2017, NATS

Meeting #2, 27th April 2017, Adelard

Meeting #1, 2nd March 2017, CGI

 

What is Service Assurance?

In this context, this is concerned with service models and provision of services which need an assurance position, i.e. Safety Assured Services. The services delivered can be of many forms (for instance Air Navigation, Fleet Maintenance or e-Prescribing) and can be in diverse domains, e.g. Transport, Defence, Energy or Healthcare. The fundamental difference between systems and services here is that services include people, process, contracts and agreements, and through-life elements (e.g. support and maintenance) as well as all the contributing systems. 

It is also noted that many safety-related Information Technology systems are moving (or have moved) to an IT service provision model such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), where established safety standards and guidelines don't readily apply; something new is needed.

ITIL V3 defines a service as: "Services are a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating the outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks."

Why is the SCSC involved?

Many safety-related (and increasingly safety-critical) systems are used in a service context, i.e. consumed as part of an operational scenario (e.g. an ambulance despatch system or air traffic control system). It is recognised that a service view of safety is much more appropriate in these situations as there is a lot more involved than just the individual systems. It is the collaborative working of the systems, people, processes (and also contracts and subcontractors) using a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that gives the overall safety position.

There is very little specific guidance or standards for service assurance in a safety context, hence the SCSC would like to develop some material to assist practitioners in this area. 

What will the Working Group do?

The working group will aim to achieve a set of goals for the group, develop a set of activities to achieve the goals and a timeframe in which to produce them. These will likely be guidance materials in the first instance. See below:

Statement of the Problem

It is agreed that the risks presented by safety-related services are rarely explicitly recognised or addressed in current safety management practices, guidelines and standards (which usually take a product-based perspective). It is likely that service (as distinct from system) failures have led to safety incidents and accidents, but this has not always been recognised. 

It is acknowledged that a service-oriented approach may help in identifying and managing safety risks more effectively in many service-based scenarios, particularly where there are service contracts or service level agreements (SLAs) in place. This service view of safety will then better inform the content for the agreements put in place to manage the service. There are therefore clear business and societal benefits, in terms of reduced harm, reduced commercial liabilities and improved business efficiencies, in taking a service view of safety.

Agreed Vision

To produce clear and practical guidance on how services should be managed in a safety related context, to reflect emerging best practice. 

Please contact mike.parsons@scsc.uk if you would like further information.

WG Lead Bio

Mike is an experienced Safety Engineer and Safety Manager with a special interest in systems, services, software and data. He has been actively involved in safety and mission-critical systems for over 30 years, particularly in the aerospace, defence, satellite navigation, rail and health sectors. He is currently working in healthcare projects including hospital patient records and e-prescribing systems. He has led initiatives to produce safety management system definition and competency and training frameworks. He has led a safety practice team of 17 staff; he was also a safety community Leader with over 80 members. He has conducted many safety audits and produced a safety auditor training course.

Mike is currently the SCSC Director and Events Coordinator, leading the technical strategy for the club and organising events including the annual Safety-Critical Systems symposium. He is the chair of both the Data Safety Initiative and Service Assurance working groups producing new guidance for safety assurance in these areas.

He has recently presented several papers on data and services themes at industry conferences.

Mike can be contacted at mike.parsons@scsc.uk