Digital Bow-Tie

A bow-tie diagram is a visual representation of the threats and consequences surrounding a hazard.

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Threats or causes that increase the likelihood of the unwanted event, or 'risk', are mapped onto prevention measures, or 'preventative controls'. Consequences of the unwanted event occurring are mapped onto recovery measures, or 'mitigating controls'.

A digital bow-tie makes this diagram interactive: creating tracked records of preventative and mitigating controls automatically populates the diagram of the associated risk. Failing controls are then highlighted on the diagram for a particular risk, where these failures can be triggered by responses to investigation questionnaires in the field. The bow-tie diagram allows the state of controls around a risk to be monitored at a glance.

The purpose of a digital bow-tie is therefore to alleviate the administrative burden of monitoring controls and critical controls, as part of a critical control management (CCM) strategy.