An Accountability Approach to Resolve Multi-stakeholder Conflicts

A problem that has been increasingly emerging recently in software development is that the interests of stakeholders with different positions and roles can lead to system failures due to exacerbation of conflicts among them. This research considers the degradation of software reliability due to conflicts of interest among multiple stakeholders as one of the challenges of multi-concern assurance, and describes a method to resolve stakeholder conflicts and improve software dependability. We propose an accountability map that incorporates the approach to achieving accountability outlined in international standard IEC 62853. We identify events that require accountability, identify risks that arise from exacerbating stakeholder conflicts, and describe resolution procedures that support and resolve risk responses. The results of this paper are valuable in that increased trust among stakeholders will enable software development to be responsive to accountability issues.