A risk-based approach to supporting the operator role in complex monitoring systems

Many facility and infrastructure Central Monitoring Systems have functions that relate to the protection and resilience of critical infrastructure protection and resilience. Issues of concern include terrorist threats. To counter such threats, use is made of defensive layers which include biometrics, smart cards, CCTV and perimeter screening. There is much interest in virtual training and crisis management techniques to train staff to recognise and effectively respond to scenarios and incidents (and, from time to time, the real thing). The examples given here are hypothetical, but based on experiences with Functional Safety Assessment (FSA) of actual Traffic Control Centres (TCC), Operations Management and Control Systems (OMCS) and Central Management Systems (CMS). It is concluded that a complex control centre remains vulnerable to human error if only one operator is present at the time a critical alarm is raised.