Certifiably safe software-dependent systems: challenges and directions

Abstract

The amount and impact of software-dependence in critical systems impinging on daily life is increasing rapidly. In many of these systems, inadequate software and systems engineering can lead to economic disaster, injuries or death. Society generally does not recognize the potential of losses from deficiencies of systems due to software until after some mishap occurs. Then there is an outcry, reflecting societal expectations; however, few know what it takes to achieve the expected safety and, in general, loss-prevention.On the one hand there are unprecedented, exponential increases in size, inter-dependencies, intricacies, numbers and variety in the systems and distribution of development processes across organizations and cultures. On the other hand, industry's capability to verify and validate these systems has not kept up. Mere compliance with existing standards, techniques, and regulations cannot guarantee the safety properties of these systems. The gap between practice and capability is increasing rapidly.This paper considers the future of software engineering as needed to support development and certification of safety-critical softwaredependent systems. We identify a collection of challenges and document their current state, the desired state, gaps and barriers to reaching the desired state, and potential directions in software engineering research and education that could address the gaps and barriers.

A systematic process for obtaining the behavior of context-sensitive systems

“…Decomposing systems into components can also lead to cost reductions and decreased development time when components are reused across multiple systems (Hatcliff et al 2014). …”

Using Assurance Cases in Requirements Engineering for Safety-Critical Systems

“…Software is an essential part of modern embedded, electrical/electronic and control systems [Hatcliff et al 2014]. Software-intensive systems permeate several domains, such as automotive, robotic and medical devices.…”

“…Software-intensive systems permeate several domains, such as automotive, robotic and medical devices. Safety-critical systems (SCS) are those whose operation brings concerns regarding harms or damages they can cause to people, organizations or environment in case of failure [Hatcliff et al 2014]. Many standards acknowledge software components as essential parts of modern safety-critical systems and demand the fulfillment of a series of high-level safety requirements and process compliance obligations [Ebert 2015].…”

Towards Qualifiable Code Generation from a Clocked Synchronous Subset of Modelica

“…Using a qualifiable tool alleviates tool qualification efforts and the project specific tool qualification is usually achieved in close collaboration of the tool user and the tool vendor (Hatcliff et al, 2014).…”