The impact of process capability on service reliability for critical infrastructure providers

This study investigated the relationship between organizational processes that have been identified as promoting resiliency and their impact on service reliability within the scope of critical infrastructure providers. The importance of critical infrastructure to the nation is evident from the body of research and is supported by instances where critical infrastructure has been negatively impacted and this has created significant implications for those that rely upon it. The CERT-RMM framework is one of a number of models that has been created to assist organizations with improving their ability to respond to threats to critical infrastructure. This study utilized a subset of the CERT-RMM framework processes and representatives from the electric utility industry to determine the level of adoption of these processes in their organizations and obtain metrics regarding their level of process capability and looked at their relationship to historical levels of service reliability. The results of a process capability questionnaire were used to establish the relationship between process capability and service reliability, including moderating factors and their impact to service reliability. The questionnaire evaluated eleven process areas, including risk management to determine levels of process capability. The findings of the study established support for the overall model, in addition to relationships between service reliability and two levels of process capability as defined by the CERT-RMM model. The moderating impact of weather events upon service reliability was also established. The study supported the usefulness of process capability and other emerging maturity models in measuring how well organizations are establishing and preparing their operations to withstand impacts to service reliability and that trends of improved service reliability in the United States can be attributed to these models.