LFI Conf 23 | Tanner Lund, Indeed | Functional Resonance Analysis in Sociotechnical Systems

Tanner Lund, Staff Incident Analyst, Indeed

The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) is a method for studying complex systems, including sociotechnical systems. Outcome agnostic, it models these systems in terms of their functions, dependencies, and interactions - identifying variance in function outputs (which can be good too!) instead of a "success/failure" paradigm. This approach allows for a better understanding of how systems work and - importantly - how they interact.

FRAM is not a replacement for any existing LFI processes, but rather another valuable tool that is applicable to retrospective analysis (incidents) as well as prospective analysis of system dynamics. It helps analysts and SMEs to think deeply about their systems, interactions, dependencies, and expectations in both normal work (!) and unusual circumstances. Importantly, it also generates compelling visual artifacts that can be a powerful tool in narrative building and knowledge elicitation/sharing.

While one can go quite deep into the technicalities of FRAM, a conference session covering the basics should be sufficient to develop a foundational understanding, model literacy, and an eye for where the method may or may not be worth the investment when learning from incidents.

Learning from incidents involves tradeoffs. It is, after all, cognitive work. There is a case to be made for FRAM, as a supplementary method to existing LFI processes, deserving consideration when deciding what deliberate efforts to put into learning about a system/from an incident.

Learning from Incidents (LFI) is a community challenging conventional views and reshaping how the software industry thinks about incidents, software reliability, and the critical role people play in keeping their systems running.In today’s economy, software organizations can’t afford to not learn from incidents.

LFI Conference is made possible by the financial and planning support of the Jeli team. Nora Jones, Founder and CEO of Jeli, founded the LFI community and website as a way to show organizations how to get more ROI out of their most powerful investments -- their incidents.