SYRMA: a tool for a system approach to risk management in mission critical systems

Managing risks and taking steps to reduce risks at acceptable level are considered as strategic objectives for organisations in almost any application domain. It is widely recognised that a system-oriented approach is needed to effectively manage risks in complex and mission critical systems. Well-known standard approaches to risk management exist and some frameworks and best practices have reached a high level of completeness and suitability in the different possible application scenarios. Nonetheless, we realised that poor support is offered towards the adoption of system-oriented approaches to risk management. This paper proposes a web-based application, named systemic risk management (SYRMA), to effectively support a system approach to risk management, especially in the case of complex and mission critical systems. SYRMA is based on a conceptual model that identifies main entities in risk management and their relations with resources of the target organisation. Identified relationships among model entities facilitate the provision of a synoptic overview of incidents, possible risks and risk-related information. Finally, we describe how SYRMA has been implemented as a prototype for the healthcare sector.