We use cookies to ensure our website operates correctly and to monitor visits to our site. This helps us to improve the way our website works, ensuring that users easily find what they are looking for. To allow us to keep doing this, click 'Accept All Cookies'. Alternatively, you can personalise your cookie settings.

Accept All Cookies Personalise settings

Why is Mission Assurance needed?

Whether you are planning and executing a complex mission or running day-to-day activities, you require confidence that together the people, processes, information and technologies will deliver operational success.

This is ever more important in today’s constantly changing, highly congested and contested global landscape. Your organisation must consider evolving manmade and naturally occurring threats; keeping pace with technologies; your ability to operate with partners; increasing volumes of data along with recruitment, growth and retention of skills.

You need to understand and mitigate risks, but also maximise opportunities to be assured you maximise a capabilities’ performance and ensure operational success.  This is where QinetiQ’s capability assurance services can be of use.

What is Mission Assurance? 

QinetiQ’s Mission Assurance service increases understanding and confidence that a capability operates as intended, has resilience and risks can be managed and mitigated.  We are able to build upon a deep heritage in test, evaluation and assurance of safety critical systems for Defence, National Security and wider Government.

The assurance comes from the assessment of three main areas against your expectations for the capability: 

  1. Risk Appetite. The level of risk you will accept in pursuit of an outcome
  2. Risk Tolerance. The variation in risk you’ll accept against performance
  3. The balance of risk all the components of the capability contribute. For example, not all Defence Lines of Development (DLODs) or People, Process, Information, Technology, and Facilities (PPITFs) are equal. Some will be more important than others when contributing to overall risk.

Variables come from many sources. Examples include operative’s skill levels, availability, training, equipment maintenance, system integration, operational information quality and effective information sharing. QinetiQ takes a holistic look across all aspects of a capability, ensuring they are integrated to fulfil the needs of the mission. Focusing on equipment is easy but can’t alone guarantee success of the overall capability. 

What do I get from the Capability Assurance process?

QinetiQ capability assurance
 We think of assurance as an iterative and continuous approach through a capabilities’ lifecycle.  Changes in technology, people, processes, threats, regulation, among other factors, will change the risk and therefore confidence in the outcome. We look at this lifecycle through 5 assessments that give Commanders continued confidence that:
  • They are making the right strategic decisions regarding capability, threats and planning – DISCOVER AND UNDERSTAND
  • They have the confidence in adopting and evolving new capabilities in support of their mission outcomes – DESIGN & DELIVER
  • They are testing and evaluating the capabilities are robust, safe and secure in a mission context – VALIDATE & PROTECT
  • Ahead of a mission they are optimising the performance of their technology, processes, people and teams – OPERATIONALISE
  • They are integrating capability as a whole to enhance performance during a mission – EMBED & SUSTAIN

What are the benefits of Mission Assurance?

  • Increases operational success by accelerating the pace of capability development
  • Through-life understanding and mitigation of risks
  • Enables safe, secure and legal ‘clearance for use’ certification
  • Maintains operational advantage through exploration and exploitation of data and new or novel technologies
  • Enhancing SQEP development and growth
  • Increasing the resilience of capabilities against failures