The past and present of System-Theoretic Accident Model And Processes (STAMP) and its associated techniques: A scoping review

Abstract

Targeting the analysis of socio-technical complexity, the System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) was developed to engineer safer systems. Since its inception in the early 2000s, STAMP and its associated techniques, namely the System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and the Causal Analysis based on System Theory (CAST), have attracted increasing interest as suitable approaches for safety studies. Nonetheless, a literature review on their applications is lacking. This paper fills this gap via a scoping literature survey on contributions indexed in academic journals and conference proceedings. Through a systematic analysis of 321 eligible documents, this research presents a comprehensive examination of relevant features for STAMP, STPA and CAST since 2003, such as the system type and domain of analysis, coverage and completeness of the analytical and methodological steps, respectively, as well as alterations and/or enrichments of their original versions. The bibliometric findings from primary, secondary and non-empirical research contributions are discussed to critically reflect on the past and present of STAMP and its associated techniques, and possible future directions are highlighted.