Using Metrics in the Industrial IoT Value Chain to Drive Trustworthiness
risk mitigations related to trustworthiness.
Care must be taken not to overinvest in
trustworthiness mechanisms, however,
since this can be detrimental to overall
system performance, utility and cost.
Connected bathroom scales provide a good
everyday example of this kind of dynamic:
There are many things that could be done to
improve the accuracy of the scales (for
example controlling for environmental
humidity, adjusting for altitude, ensuring a
perfectly level surface and so on), but it just
doesn’t make business sense to invest this
much in the pursuit of accuracy.
strategy and business results. The
investments to be made can relate to the
“business as usual,” such as increasing
production, expanding the business and so
on. Investments can also be used to address
trustworthiness risks either through direct
investment with the aim of reducing the
frequency of harmful events or by indirect
methods such as purchasing insurance (to
mitigate the consequences of any harmful
event). Making the right investments in
trustworthiness requires a detailed
understanding of the IIoT system in question
and also that appropriate decisions are
taken regarding the needs and tradeoffs
among functional, non-functional and
trustworthiness requirements.
Figure 2 provides some illustrative examples
of the consequences of over-specifying an
IIoT solution in each of the five identified
aspects of trustworthiness:
Figure 2: Example consequences of over specifying trustworthiness aspects
Managers of a company have choices they
can make with regards to the investments
they make in most business-related assets.
These real options have consequences to the
organizational business continuity, health,
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IIC Journal of Innovation