Groupware Task Analysis in practice: a scientific approach meets security problems

Groupware Task Analysis (GTA) is applied for the redesign of a commercial security system. The problem is the confidentiality of the knowledge on the task domain. The system is the actual security systems in use in companies, AND, obviously, none of them is eager to have details of its security management situation and security procedures being made available to outsiders, even if these are employed by a company that designed their system. The paper describes the problems in applying GTA and shows ways to cope with the restrictions involved in analysing safety critical systems in industrial design projects.