Software Engineering Institute

Complexity and change are pervasive in the operational environments of today's organizations. Organizational and technological components that must work together may be created, managed, and maintained by different entities around the globe. The ability of these independently developed pieces to effectively work together after they are built and integrated is uncertain and problematic. The way technology is applied by people to address an operational need must also be understood. Survivability of the organization depends on the capabilities of the people, actions, and technology that compose the operational process to work together to achieve operational effectiveness. A team of Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) software engineers built the Survivability Analysis Framework (SAF) to examine the elements of an operational process and evaluate the survivability and effectiveness of the linkage among roles, dependencies, constraints, and risks to achieve critical operational capabilities. The SAF and the benefits achieved in its pilot use are described in this report.