Guidelines for AcciMap analysis (January 2009)

Summary

This chapter from the book 'Learning from High Reliability Organisations' focuses on a systems-based technique for accident analysis referred to as the AcciMap approach. The technique involves the construction of a multi-layered diagram, in which the various causes of an accident are arranged according to their causal remoteness from the outcome. It is particularly useful for establishing how factors in all parts of a sociotechnical system contributed to an organisational accident and for arranging the causes into a coherent diagram that reveals how they interacted to produce that outcome. By identifying these causal factors and the interrelationships between them in this way, it is possible to identify problem areas that should be addressed to improve the safety of the system and prevent similar occurrences in the future.