Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The Automation Federation, an ISA-sponsored organization, has announced that it will assist in a study on the feasibility of a control systems security certification organization. I was puzzled by the press release until I saw that the study leadership is by Eric Byres of Wurldtech Analytics (formerly of British Columbia Institute of Technology). Industry standards initiative include ISA SP99 committee and NERC CIP-2-9 plus the work of the OMAC MSMUG (Microsoft manufacturers users group), but Byres aims to help define methods by which suppliers of products can validate that their products afford the necessary level of secure operation. This is a significant undertaking. If you have an opportunity or expertise to help, contact the Federation or Byres. Joann Byres, Director of Applied Research of Wurldtech Analytics Inc. says the deliverables from the study will include: Investigation of critical success factors in industrial certification organizations An incorporation model designed to best meet the needs of industry (e.g. non-profit or for-profit) A proposed accreditation model and guidelines for interaction with standards bodies Governance, membership, code of conduct and voting model Legal and property rights guidelines Proposed budget and membership fee model A multiyear time line and milestones for the setup and operation of the organization Long-term sustainability of the organization Estimation of member commitment requirements in time and people 9:25:58 AM    comment []

Ford management Received an interesting comment from John Hunter regarding my Ford middle management post. Reminded me of a book I read some 20 years ago (so I forget the title and author) about Ford's HR system for management back in the 60s and 70s. They would take three managers/professionals and tell them that they were competing for the next job. One would win, two would be out. Wow, what a way to build a team! On the other hand, I learned the "science" of notebooks when I got a new boss at Airstream in the late 70s. I was in product development and was tabbed for a new position called "program manager." My boss had spent several years at Ford in product development and brought part of the system with him. When his boss (at some level higher, anyway) had a meeting with "Henry the Deuce" (Henry Ford II), he would have a notebook with tabbed sections that provided a summary of all the information revolving around the program. For each tabbed section there existed at least one huge notebook of detail. In order to get all this stuff to a meeting, there existed a job called "book bearer." So, we did lots of notebooks for the next year (until we were all laid off when Airstream management felt that product development was a luxury). It all helped to teach me additional organization skills that would be (oops, are) useful today. Thanks for the links, John, and for bringing back the memories. 8:45:45 AM    comment []