Multi-Stakeholder Risk Assessment of Socio-Technical Interventions

Abstract

IT-enabled interventions into economic and social systems of broad scope and large scale are likely to have substantial impacts, and suffer high failure rates. Conventional approaches to devising and evaluating such interventions are heavily committed to the perspective of the sponsoring organization, with standardized analysis, design, and implementation processes typically disregarding broader stakeholder participation. The interests of other stakeholders are commonly considered only if they are perceived to represent constraints on the achievability of the sponsor’s objectives. This narrows the focus to only those stakeholders that are perceived to have sufficient power, and overlooks other legitimate stakeholders. This article adopts a socio-technical approach to emphasize the importance of the social dimension in all IT-enabled interventions. This leads to the conception of risk assessment (RA) being refined, with the objective of addressing the challenges that arise with large-scale, high-impact socio-technical interventions. A new form of RA is proposed, incorporating the perspectives of multiple stakeholders. It is intended to reduce both harm to stakeholders and the incidence of intervention failure. The Multi-Stakeholder Risk Assessment (MSRA) process is presented, adapting the traditional risk assessment processes in a minimally disruptive manner. An overview of the steps within MSRA is provided, as well as practical guidance regarding its application. Prior exemplars and motivators for the adoption of MSRA are identified, and its efficacy is demonstrated through two example projects conducted by a large-scale government agency.