Engineering has experienced a technological revolution, but the
basic engineering techniques applied in safety and reliability
engineering, created in a simpler, analog world, have changed
very little over the years. This book describes a new approach
to safety and risk management that is better suited to today's
complex, sociotechnical, software-intensive world. The new
approach is based on modern systems thinking and systems theory.
It revisits and updates ideas pioneered by 1950's aerospace
engineers in their System Safety concept. The new approach has
now been used extensively on real-world systems and it is
proving to be more effective, less expensive, and easier to use.
The book describes a new model of causation (STAMP or Systems-
Theoretic Accident Model and Processes) that can be used to
improve the design, This 1995 book examines past accidents and
what is currently known about building safe electromechanical
systems to see what lessons can be applied to new computer-
controlled systems. Most accident