Tripod Beta
The Tripod Beta method sets itself apart from other incident investigation and analysis methods because it uses the Human Behavior model used to find out why a barrier has failed. The Tripod Beta method is used to understand three things namely;
- What was the sequence of the incident?
- How did it happen, which barriers failed?
- Why have these barriers failed?
The Tripod Tree
In Tripod Beta, an incident is always shown in a series of trios, namely the agent of a change, the object changed and the resulting incident event. This describes what happened, you can also see the barriers that should have prevented the incident.
When a barrier fails, it is the result of an accident, misjudgment, or it was a deliberate choice by a person or group of people. Identifying this is just the first step. The next step is to identify and find out the context or train of thought, why this action was taken, we call this the precondition.
The precondition is why someone believed that something had to be done, why he / she thought there was a good reason why they did it, and why they thought that action would be successful.
When all questions have been answered the underlying cause is revealed, the real reason why the incidents happened. Usually the underlying cause has been in the “system” for a long time but has not yet surfaced.