Service Resilience & Software Risk
Webinar
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We increasingly rely on services implemented by digital systems.
The software components of these systems are mostly sourced by service providers from outside sources. The digital systems built from these components are complex and tightly coupled. These characteristics mean that the combination of human error, cyber-attack and Natural Accident Theory will result in unpredictable service outages.
These service outages are already a significant cost to the UK economy; to individual users, to citizens and to the public at large. All are seriously affected when service outages occur. Digital systems are not within users’ choice, care or control, but they are becoming systems upon which users must rely.
The costs and consequences of software failure and service outages are increasing due to technological as well as human factors. In addition to growing technological complexity, the widening use of AI and the escalating frequency of cyber-attacks carry increased risk of failures. The expanding reach of services means that more people are affected by service outages – the loss of “user hours” through service outages is increasingly recognised as a key measure.
This webinar reflects the recommendations on “what can be done” from a RoundTable of the National Preparedness Commission, Business Continuity Institute and BCS (was British Computer Society). It builds on three earlier reports:
https://www.bcs.org/media/9679/itlf-software-risk-resilience.pdf
https://www.bcs.org/membership-and-registrations/member-communities/bcs-it-leaders-forum/papers/
The recommendations cover:
- Potential levers that government could choose to exercise;
- Role of regulators;
- Infrastructure sectors;
- Approach by organisations delivering services;
- Reducing skill gaps for the C-Suite and other leaders;
- Education and certification for IT and resilience professionals.
Speakers:
Gill Ringland's books on Scenario Planning and strategy are used at Business Schools including Harvard. Her most recent book, the 9th, with Patricia Lustig, is New Shoots – people making fresh choices in a changing world.
Gill’s early career included the Universities of Bristol (B. Sc.), Edinburgh, Newcastle (M.Sc.), California at Berkeley, and Oxford. She did pioneering work in IT on systems and data architecture, at CAP, Inmos and Modcomp. She has been active in seven start-ups and built a £3bn new business at computer firm ICL. She was CEO, Director and a Fellow of SAMI Consulting (Strategy with a view of the future) from 2002 to 2017, with clients in the public, private and NGO sector from Mexico to Malaysia. From September 2017 to February 2021 she was a Director of Ethical Reading. She is now a trustee of u3a in Newbury.
She is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS), an Emeritus Fellow Emeritus of SAMI and ICL, and a Fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science. She is a graduate of Stanford University's Senior Executive Program; and a Liveryman of the City of London. She has been co-opted for various UK and EC advisory roles.
She writes often for Long Finance Pamphleteers, and writing Global Risks – Is Software The Vlieg In De Soep*? With Patricia Lustig prompted her to think about software again. She is co-chair of the BCS’s IT Leaders Forum’s Software Risk and Resilience Working Group, which has developed the work described in this webinar.
Professor Ed Steinmueller has been Professorial Fellow at SPRU since 1997.
He began his studies in the areas of computer science, mathematics, economics, and Chinese language and history at the University of Oregon and Stanford University. He has a BA, University of Oregon, PhD Stanford University (economics). At Stanford (1974-1994), he was engaged in teaching, research, consulting while being a Deputy Director of what is now the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He was selected for a chair at MERIT at the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands where he developed a Doctoral training school.
He has published widely in the field of the industrial economics of information and communication technology industries including integrated circuits, computers, telecommunications, software and the economic, social and policy issues of the Information Society. He has also contributed to research in science policy and the economics of basic research. He has been an advisor to several Directorates at the European Commission, the National Academies of Science and Engineering (US), and the Department of Trade and Industry and Office of Telecommunications (UK). His current research is aimed at systemic change aiming at environmental sustainability and social justice.
He is co-chair of the BCS’s IT Leaders Forum’s Software Risk and Resilience Working Group, which has developed the work described in this webinar.
Speaker(s):
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Gill Ringland
Emeritus Fellow
SAMI Consulting
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Professor Ed Steinmueller
Professorial Fellow
SPRU
Chairman:
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Mike Wardle
CEO & Head of Indices
Z/Yen Group