Critical control management (CCM)

CCM is the operational discipline built on top of bowtie thinking. Where a bowtie diagram maps every barrier around a top event, CCM narrows the focus to material unwanted events — the fatality and catastrophe scenarios — and the handful of critical controls that prevent them, then manages those controls as operational assets: defined performance, assigned owners, scheduled verification, and reporting with teeth.

The reference framework is the ICMM's Critical Control Management Good Practice Guide, first published in 2015 and substantially updated in 2026 with stronger direction on governance, accountability, leadership involvement, and maturity assessment. Its core loop: identify the material unwanted events → select critical controls (bowties are the standard tool) → define performance and verification for each → check in the field → act on gaps → report to governance.

CCM is now effectively the expected practice across Australian mining and increasingly across other high-hazard Australian industries, because it answers the question WHS regulators and boards actually ask after an incident: which control failed, who owned it, when was it last verified, and what did you do about the result?

The connective tissue CCM depends on — controls linked to the events they defend, performance standards on the controls, verification evidence attached — is exactly what a connected bowtie model maintains. That is the workflow Bowtie Risk Engine is built around; see how the register and performance standards stay attached to the diagram.