If you're experiencing issues with system boundaries, unclear accountability, or interoperability challenges, our support team is ready to assist. We prioritize continuity and clarity in every handoff. Reach out via the contact form, email, or phone. Our collective is dedicated to resolving responsibility gaps in digital systems.
A responsibility gap occurs at the boundaries between interconnected digital systems where accountability for failures, decisions, or outcomes becomes ambiguous. These gaps often arise from unclear handoff protocols, undocumented operational assumptions, or misaligned incentives between different system components or stakeholders.
We believe robust, fault-tolerant systems that maintain consistent operation are more critical than those optimized solely for speed or resource use. Our research and recommendations focus on designing interfaces and protocols that ensure system resilience and clear accountability, even if it requires additional safeguards that may reduce peak efficiency.
Examples include API handoffs between microservices without comprehensive error logging, data pipelines between departments with mismatched validation rules, and integrations between legacy and modern platforms where failure modes are not jointly owned. These interfaces are where assumptions clash and accountability often dissolves.
We are a multidisciplinary research group focused on the sociotechnical challenges of system interoperability and accountability. Based in Ottawa, we analyze real-world cases, publish papers, and provide advisory services to help organizations design systems with clearly defined responsibility boundaries.
Key strategies include explicit service-level agreements (SLAs) for all interfaces, co-designed failure protocols between teams, comprehensive audit trails that cross system boundaries, and fostering a culture of shared ownership for end-to-end outcomes rather than isolated component performance.
You can read our published papers on our website. For inquiries, please reach out via email at contact@interfacezero.ca or visit our office at 112 Kent Street, Floor 5, Ottawa, ON K1P 5P2. You can also use the contact form on our website's contact page.