ABSTRACT
This paper presents and discusses a pilot study named Operational Conditions in Control Rom Organisations (OCCO). The main goal of the study was to develop and test a qualitative safety improvement approach intended to supplement quantitative approaches applied for safety management in the space domain. The historical and current practice in the European space industry are considered when discussing how qualitative approaches can be a valuable supplement in an industry with a strong inclination towards quantitative methodology and a risk analyses tradition with strong grounding in the engineering science. Some preliminary results will be provided and discussed in regard to experience from a project in the petroleum sector using an approach called Operation Safety Condition (OSC). The OCCO study aim to provide a qualitative pro-active approach that offer ‘thicker descriptions’ of conditions that are considered to be of significant importance for human and organizational safety in control room operations.
