System Software Safety Process
Overview
The purpose of this document is to aid projects involved in the development
and assurance of safety critical software contained in a system. This document
shall provide the preferred methodology to be used to identify, manage, and
control system/software safety critical capabilities or hazards. This shall be
applicable to; software developers/subcontractors, software product assurance,
system safety, software quality assurance, airworthiness, and software safety organizations.
In general, this document complies with MIL-STD-882 and shall be used in
association with the software development strategies and activities required by
ISO/IEC 15288/12207 using MIL-STD-498 and SEI "key practices" as
defined by the "Project Standards". This document assumes the reader
is familiar with the processes and products required by "ISO/IEC
12207/MIL-STD-498" and "MIL-STD-882".
This document shall define the system safety programme requirements for
safety-critical software to be performed throughout the life cycle of any new
system, new development, re-engineering, upgrade, modification, resolution of
deficiencies, or technology development. This document however will not define
the systems analysis tasks for the hardware components of a programme; that may
well be a significant effort. When properly applied, these requirements shall
ensure the identification and understanding of all known hazards and their
associated risks; and mishap risk eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels.
This document describes resource data required for each analysis task, the
methodology, techniques, and tools for performing the analysis, and the output
products. It also describes how to use these products in the overall risk
management activity.
The document goes on to describe techniques and procedures in more detail. To
make the document more practical, it contains analysis examples and possible
pitfalls and problems that may be encountered during the analysis process.
This document also intends to satisfy the following objectives of RTCA/DO-178B
:
- Develop objectives for the software development life cycle processes;
- Provide a description of the activities and design considerations for
achieving those objectives.
The additional RTCA/DO-178B requirements to provide a description of the
evidence-indicating adherence to these objectives shall be defined in the
"Software Considerations for Airworthiness Certification Process"
document when applicable.
The identification of hazards is the responsibility of all programme and
project participants.
This standard software safety process shall be used in conjunction with
"Project Standards", "ISO/IEC 15288/12207/MIL-STD-498", and
the supporting "MIL-STD-498" "Overview and Tailoring" and
"Application and Reference" guidebooks.
The primary objective of the System Safety Engineering programme shall be to
minimize or contain system hazards. Scientific and engineering principles shall
be applied during the system and software design and development to identify
and mitigate these hazards. Management techniques shall include system and
software life cycle considerations to ensure identified hazards are contained.
The basic premise of System Safety philosophy is recognition that an initial
investment in "engineering-out, safety hazards, and
"designing-in" mitigation measures is a long term cost saving
measure. System Safety Engineering shall be integrated with the systems
engineering and management process and software project tracking and oversight
process to identify any hazards are contained or mitigated.
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Copyright © Ken Rigby 2003, 2004