Modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A) supports a wide range of economic, academic and governmental efforts. Different practitioner communities have agreed on local practices, but there is little interaction among communities. A related gap is the absence of executive level risk assessments for executive use. Executives often make multi-disciplinary decisions. Increasingly these are based on analytics. This paper presents an executive level risk assessment methodology. The method is based on a checklist founded on an international benchmarking effort.
The authors led a three-year benchmarking effort across various disciplines (including decision analysis, operations research, risk modeling, management science, conflict and combat simulation, and logistics and supply chain simulation). Practitioners volunteered to describe their practices and learn from others.
The authors also conducted research into specific risks, including legal risks which arise from increased reliance on analytics. Among the risks are some unique concerns related to Artificial Intelligence.
The work showed that risks arise from several sources, not just the absence of best practices. This led to development of a risk checklist which does not require in-depth knowledge of MS&A. This paper presents the checklist, as well as some of the deeper MS&A principles which support it. This is a dual framework, useful for both executives and practitioners.