Defending Essential Processes

The essential purpose of a program makes up only a small part of the overall task. All of the complications in the program come from addressing what can go wrong. Where the essential business processes remain stable, close examination shows complex defensive mechanisms which change as new threats to the business develop. Norms derive from modelling social behaviour but are not absolute expressions of what will happen, people may act counter to the behaviour described in the norm. Many norms in business are concerned with defending against erroneous or illegal behaviour of staff and third parties. This paper uses examples to illustrate the development of defensive norms and how these norms may be used in designing processes. Essential business processes cannot be improved by adding defensive norms but processes are usually more effective where security norms are implemented preventing the breaking of norms.