23. Behavior Modeling for Policy Audit: Using Monterey-Phoenix to Predict Emergent Behavior in Policies and Procedures

Abstract

Monterey-Phoenix is a high-level language developed by the United States Navy with simple and approachable event grammar for expressing complex behaviors of user-defined actors in processes, systems, and systems of systems. This novel behavior analysis framework is uniquely capable of iterative behavior scenario-generation to trace through what behaviors are possible and impossible with a given model’s design. Monterey-Phoenix was originally developed as an enhancement to software debugging but has since been embraced as a pan-disciplinary cognitive assistance framework to help its users reason about intended / unintended behaviors within their models. This unique approach to behavior model analysis with Monterey-Phoenix is ideal for uncovering any lurking assumptions made by the user about their model, revealing additional previously undiscerned formal requirements of the model, and exposing and managing possible emergent behaviors within the model. Though Monterey-Phoenix has been applied to many different industries and sciences outside its originally intended purview it has yet to be seriously leveraged for the express purpose of auditing a given socio-organizational policy or procedure. Employing Monterey-Phoenix for the purpose of modeling policies and procedures may offer new insights into information security and enterprise governance. In this application, Monterey-Phoenix will be explored for its potential as a formal modeling process for evaluating proposed policies / procedures to lay bare any ambiguity or loopholes which may expose them to any manner of adversity including abuse, error, and waste.