Sponsor:
Sponsor:CEC COPERNICUS
Institute of Communication and Information Technologies, Poland.
Josef Stefan Institute, Slovenia.
Institute of Power Systems Automation, Poland.
Contact Point:Amer Saeed
Rogério de Lemos
Duration:2 years; ended May 1997
Keywords:software safety analysis, formal techniques, process control systems
Abstract:The project aims to provide techniques for the safety analysis of software, based on formal models and traditional safety analysis techniques, that provide qualitative evidence that the risk associated with the software is acceptable. This evidence must be in a form that can be used in the preparation of a safety case for the software.The migration of traditional safety analysis techniques into software development has the potential to provide a good basis for an integrated approach to the overall safety analysis for both the application domain and the software domain. However, the application of traditional techniques tends to be less effective, and more complex, when applied to software. Examples are the need for templates in software fault trees, and the "modified" keywords of extended HAZOPS techniques. This project will adopt a more fundamental approach and first understand the basic (semantic) notions of the safety analysis techniques, and then investigate how such notions can be combined with the formal techniques currently proposed for the software domain.
Further Information:
CSR Contribution
Newcastle's role in the project is concentrated on issues related to the development of novel safety analysis techniques; this includes identification of appropriate modelling abstractions for safety analysis over application and software domains, and using these to devise novel techniques. Newcastle also has an overseeing administrative coordination role.
Publications:Follow links to abstracts where available.Centre for Software Reliability, 13 June 1997M. Cepin, R. de Lemos, B. Mavko, S. Riddle, A. Saeed. "An Object-Based Approach to Modelling and Analysis of Failure Properties". Proc. 16th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security (SAFECOMP'97). York, UK. September 1997. (to appear).[abstract]
J. Wang, A. Saeed, R. de Lemos. "Subjective Safety Analysis for Software Development". Proc. of the International Conference on Safety and Reliability (ESREL '97). Lisbon, Portugal. June 1997. (to appear.)
A. Saeed, R. de Lemos, T. Anderson. "Safety Analysis for Requirements Specifications: Methods and Techniques". Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security (SAFECOMP '95). Springer. G. Rabe (Ed.). Belgirate, Italy. October 1995. pp 27-41. [abstract]
A. Saeed, R. de Lemos, T. Anderson. "On the Safety Analysis of Requirements Specifications for Safety Critical software". ISA Transactions 34 (1995) pp 283-295.[abstract]
For background information to the project see:
A. Saeed, R. de Lemos, T. Anderson. "An Approach to the Risk Analysis of Safety Specifications". Proceedings of the 9th Annual Conference on Computer Assurance (COMPASS '94). Gaithersburg, MD, June 1994, pp 209-222.
R. de Lemos, A. Saeed, T. Anderson. "On the Safety Analysis of Requirements Specifications". Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security (SAFECOMP'94). Instrument Society of America. V. Maggioli (Ed.). Anaheim, California. October 1994. pp. 217-227.
R. de Lemos, A.Saeed and T.Anderson, "Analyzing Safety Requirements for Process-Control Systems", IEEE Software, May 1995. pp. 42-53.[abstract]
peter.barrett@newcastle.ac.uk