PS-COO-208 · r1
COORDINATION
OBSERVED
ENGAGED
THE ONLY PATH IS A PERSON
Two systems that must not meet, and one person who is in both.
01 DEFINITION
Condition in which two systems are held apart on purpose while something still has to pass between them, so the person present at both becomes the channel, and every property of the separation now rests on what that person carries across and how.
02 CONDITIONS
UNCERTAINTY
MISSING
Neither side can observe the crossing or what was carried across it.
TIME PRESSURE
SHORT
The crossing has to be quick or people stop making it the intended way.
ERROR ASYMMETRY
ASYMMETRIC
A crossing too easy and one too hard fail in opposite directions and to different people.
OPERATOR STATE
DEDICATED
The person is standing at both systems and is the whole of the connection.
03 WHERE IT APPEARS
MEDICALA clinical record and an administrative one are kept apart, and staff retype between them.
FINANCETwo environments that may not be joined are joined by the person holding a code between them.
INDUSTRIALPlant control and business systems are separated by policy and connected by an operator reading one into the other.
ENERGYIsolated operational systems exchange nothing directly, and everything they exchange goes through someone standing at both.
PUBLIC SERVICERecords that may not be combined are combined in the judgement of the officer who can see both.
MANUFACTURINGA shop-floor system and a planning system are bridged by people carrying numbers between screens.
04 WHAT AEON WORKED THROUGH HERE
Two systems were held apart deliberately and work still had to move between them. Whatever moved did so through a person standing in front of both — reading one, typing into the other, holding a short string in their head for the seconds between. The work went into making that crossing brief and one-directional, and into what each side shows about a crossing neither of them can observe.
The question it keeps returning to is what the crossing may carry — a step short enough to be tolerable moves a little every time it is taken, and one restricted enough to be safe is one people find their way around.