Title: Examining metrics and methods for determining critical facility system effectiveness

Authors: Patrick T. Hester, Kevin MacG. Adams, Sankaran Mahadevan

Addresses: Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Department, Old Dominion University, Kaufman Hall, Room 241, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA. ' National Centers for System of Systems Engineering, Norfolk, VA, USA. ' Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

Abstract: Approaches for quantifying security system performance vary for different critical facilities, ranging from in-depth quantitative analyses to heuristics-based rules of thumb. Since there is no single accepted definition for what constitutes an effective security system for a critical facility and how best to design and analyse these systems, this technical note is a survey of potential metrics and methods for critical facility system effectiveness. Recommendations are made for which metric is best suited for critical facility system effectiveness and a new method is recommended for evaluating system effectiveness.

Keywords: facility protection; system effectiveness; critical infrastructures; security systems; critical facilities; performance measurement; metrics; security system performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2010.033337

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2010 Vol.6 No.3, pp.211 - 224

Received: 25 Apr 2009
Accepted: 25 Aug 2009
Published online: 01 Jun 2010 *

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