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The 2022 Digest

This is The 2022 Digest – all the posts from The Safety Artisan last year. There have been 31 posts in all covering subjects such as:

  • Risk and Safety basics;
  • Tools and Techniques;
  • A short series on Safety Management (to be continued);
  • Design Safety;
  • SFARP and Australian WHS;
  • Hazard Logs (also to be continued);
  • Launching my Thinkific page;
  • Cyber security;
  • A series on Software Safety and Standards; and
  • Updates of posts on System Safety Analyses.

Here we go…

The 2022 Digest: Quarter Four

In this 45-minute session, I’m looking at System Requirements Hazard Analysis, or SRHA, which is Task 203 in the Mil-Std-882E standard. I will explore Task 203’s aim, description, scope, and contracting requirements.  SRHA is an important and complex task, which needs to be done on several levels to be successful.  This video explains the issues … Read more

In this 45-minute session, The Safety Artisan looks at how to do Preliminary Hazard Analysis, or PHA, which is Task 202 in Mil-Std-882E. We explore Task 202’s aim, description, scope, and contracting requirements. We also provide value-adding commentary and explain the issues with PHA – how to do it well and avoid the pitfalls. Topics: … Read more

In this full-length (40-minute) session, The Safety Artisan looks at Functional Hazard Analysis, or FHA, which is Task 208 in Mil-Std-882E. FHA analyses software, complex electronic hardware, and human interactions. We explore the aim, description, and contracting requirements of this Task, and provide extensive commentary on it. (We refer to other lessons for special techniques … Read more

Are you looking for Safety Engineering Jobs in Australia?  Thinking of moving into the profession and wondering if it’s worth it?  Already a safety engineer and thinking of moving to Australia (Poms, take note)?  Then this article is for you! Introduction The most popular online job site in Australia is seek.com.au. If we go on … Read more

SW Safety Principles Conclusions and References is the sixth and final blog post on Principles of Software Safety Assurance. In them, we look at the 4+1 principles that underlie all software safety standards. We outline common software safety assurance principles that are evident in software safety standards and best practices. You can think of these guidelines … Read more

This post, Software Safety Assurance and Standards, is the fifth in a series of six blog posts on Principles of Software Safety Assurance. In it, we look at the 4+1 principles that underlie all software safety standards. We outline common software safety assurance principles that are evident in software safety standards and best practices. You can … Read more

Software Safety Assurance is the fourth in a new series of six blog posts on Principles of Software Safety Assurance. In them, we look at the 4+1 principles that underlie all software safety standards. We outline common software safety assurance principles that are evident in software safety standards and best practices. You can think of these … Read more

Software Safety Principle 4 is the third in a new series of six blog posts on Principles of Software Safety Assurance. In it, we look at the 4+1 principles that underlie all software safety standards. We outline common software safety assurance principles that are evident in software safety standards and best practices. You can think of … Read more

The 2022 Digest: Quarter Three

Software Safety Principles 2 and 3 is the second in a new series of blog posts on Principles of Software Safety Assurance. In it, we look at the 4+1 principles that underlie all software safety standards. We outline common software safety assurance principles that are evident in software safety standards and best practices. You can think … Read more

This is the first in a new series of blog posts on Principles of Software Safety Assurance. In it, we look at the 4+1 principles that underlie all software safety standards. We outline common software safety assurance principles that are evident in software safety standards and best practices. You can think of these guidelines as … Read more

Proportionality is about committing resources to the Safety Program that are adequate – in both quality and quantity – for the required tasks. Proportionality is a concept that should be applied to determine the allocation of resource and effort to a safety and environmental argument based on its risk.  It is a difficult concept … Read more

This post, Blog: Australian vs. UK Safety Law compares the two approaches, based on my long experience of working on both sides. Are you a safety professional thinking of emigrating from the UK to Australia?  Well, I’ve done it, and here’s my BREXIT special guide!  In this 45-minute video, The Safety Artisan looks at the … Read more

In this course, ‘CISSP 2021: What’s New?’, we look at the significant changes that have been made to the CISSP Official Exam Outline (the course syllabus). Learn what’s new in the CISSP Curriculum, from May 1st, 2021 (next update in 2024) There are still Eight Domains – D1, D3 & D7 are … Read more

In this 45-minute video, I discuss System Safety Principles, as set out by the US Federal Aviation Authority in their System Safety Handbook. Although this was published in 2000, the principles still hold good (mostly) and are worth discussing. I comment on those topics where the modern practice has moved on, and those jurisdictions where … Read more

In this 33-minute session, Safety Concepts Part 2, The Safety Artisan equips you with more Safety Concepts. We look at the basic concepts of safety, risk, and hazard in order to understand how to assess and manage them. Exploring these fundamental topics provides the foundations for all other safety topics, but it doesn’t have to … Read more

In Hazard Logs – a Brief Summary, we will give you an overview of this important safety management tool. This post serves as an introduction to longer posts and videos (e.g. Hazard Logs & Hazard Tracking Systems), which will provide you with much more content. Hazard Logs – a Brief Summary Description of Hazard Log … Read more

In this Australian WHS Course, we show you how to practically and pragmatically implement the essential elements of Australian Work Health and Safety Legislation. In particular, we look at the so-called ‘upstream’ WHS duties. These are the elements you need to safely introduce systems and services into the Australian market. Lessons in This Course A Guide … Read more

The 2022 Digest: Quarter Two

In this lesson, I will teach you how to demonstrate SFARP. To use the proper terminology, from the Australian WHS Act, how to eliminate or minimize risks so far as is reasonably practicable. (The Act never uses the acronym SFARP or SFAIRP, but everyone else does.) This will build upon the post So Far As … Read more

Career change: in my lecture to the System Engineering Industry Program at the University of Adelaide, I reflect on my career changes. What can you learn from my experiences? (Hint: a lot, I hope!) I want to talk about career changes because all of you – everyone listening – have already started to make them. … Read more

In this post on Safety Management Policy, we’re going to look at the policy requirements of a typical project management safety standard. This is the Acquisition Safety & Environmental System (ASEMS). The Ministry of Defence is the biggest acquirer of manufactured goods in the UK, and it uses ASEMS to guide hundreds of acquisition projects. … Read more

Good work design can help us achieve safe outcomes by designing safety into work processes and the design of products. Adding safety as an afterthought is almost always less effective and costs more over the lifecycle of the process or product. Introduction The Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 is underpinned by the principle … Read more

Safety Planning: if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. In my experience, good safety plans don’t always result in successful safety programs; however, bad safety plans never lead to success. Safety Planning: Introduction Definitions A Safety Management Plan is defined as: “A document that defines the strategy for addressing safety and documents the Safety Management … Read more

Our Second Safety Management Procedure is the Project Safety Committee. Okay, so committees are not the sexiest subject, but we need to get stakeholders together to make things happen! Project Safety Committee: Introduction Definitions A Safety Committee is defined as: A group of stakeholders that exercises, oversees, reviews and endorses safety management and safety engineering activities. Def … Read more

In ‘Project Safety Initiation’ we look at what you need to do to get your safety project or program started. Introduction Definitions A stakeholder is anyone who will be affected by the introduction of the system and who needs to be consulted or informed about the development and fielding of the system, and anyone who contributes to … Read more

The 2022 Digest: Quarter One

‘So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable’ is a phrase that gets used a lot, but what does it mean? How do you demonstrate it? Well, in Australia we do it like this … and you can learn from this wherever you operate! Attribution This post uses text from ‘How to Determine what is Reasonably Practicable … Read more

In Safety Assessment Techniques Overview we will look at how different analysis techniques can be woven together. How does one analysis feed into another? What do we need to get sufficient coverage to be confident that we’ve done enough? Learning Objectives: Safety Assessment Techniques Overview You will be able to: List and ‘sequence’ the five … Read more

TL;DR This article on Failure Mode Effects Analysis explains this powerful and commonly-used family of techniques. It covers: A description of the technique, including its purpose; When it might be used; Advantages, disadvantages and limitations; Sources of additional information; A simple example of an FMEA/FMECA; and Additional comments. I’ve added some ‘top tips’ of my … Read more

I’m pleased to tell you that The Safety Artisan is on Thinkific! Thinkific is a powerful and beautifully-presented online Learning Management System.  This will complement the existing Safety Artisan website.   My first course will be ‘System Safety Assessment‘ with ten hours of instructional videos. The new course is here. (Please note that this is the same … Read more

What is System Safety Engineering? System Safety Engineering does five things: Deals with the whole system, including software, data, people, and environment; Uses a systematic (rigorous) process; Concentrates on requirements (to cope with complexity); Considers safety early in the system life cycle; and Handles complexity cost-effectively and efficiently. System Safety Engineering: Transcript What is system … Read more

In this article, I look at The Risk Matrix, a widely used technique in many industries. Risk Matrices have many applications! In this article, I have used material from a UK Ministry of Defence guide, reproduced under the terms of the UK’s Open Government Licence. Introduction A risk matrix is a graphical representation of the … Read more

You heard me right. Risk: Averse, Adverse, or Appetite? Which would you choose? Do we even have a choice? Read on … We often hear that we live in a risk-averse society.  By that, I mean that we don’t want to take risks, or that we’re too timid.  I don’t think that’s the whole story. … Read more

Thanks for Your Support in 2022!

Creating The 2022 Digest has reminded me just how much content I have produced this year. If you would like to get content emailed to you every two weeks, plus big discounts on courses then subscribe here!