Safety justification frameworks: Integrating rule-based, goal-based and risk-informed approaches

The reliability and safety of the digital I&C systems that implement safety functions are critical issues. In particular, software defects could result in common cause failures that defeat redundancy and defence-in-depth mechanisms. Unfortunately, the differences in current safety justification principles and methods for digital I&C restrict international co-operation and hinder the emergence of widely accepted best practices. These differences also prevent cost sharing and reduction, and unnecessarily increase licensing uncertainties, thus creating a very difficult operating environment for utilities, vendors and regulatory bodies. The European project HARMONICS (Harmonised Assessment of Reliability of MOdern Nuclear I&C Software) is seeking to develop a more harmonised approach to the justification of software-based I&C systems important to safety. This paper outlines the justification framework we intend to develop in HARMONICS. It will integrate three strategies commonly used in safety justifications of I&C system and its software: rule-based-evidence of compliance to accepted standards; goal-based-evidence that the intended behaviour and other claimed properties has been achieved; and risk-informed-evidence that unintended behaviour is unlikely. The paper will present general forms of safety case that can be adapted to a variety of specific topics

Optimal scheduling of reliability development activities

Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management is a collection of papers presented at the PSAM 7 - ESREL '04 Conference in June 2004. The joint Conference provided a forum for the presentation of the latest developments in methodology and application of probabilistic and reliability methods in various industries. Innovations in methodology as well as practical applications in the areas of probabilistic safety assessment and of reliability analysis are presented in this six volume set. The aim of these applications is the optimisation of technological systems and processes from the perspective of a risk-informed safety management while also taking economic and environmental aspects into account. The joint Conference in particular achieved an enhanced communication, the sharing of experience and integration of approaches not only among the various industries but also on a truly global basis by bringing together leading experts from all over the world. Over the last four decades, contemporary researchers have continuously been working to provide modern societies with a systematic, self-consistent and coherent framework for making decisions on at least one class of risks, those stemming from modern technological applications. Most of the effort has been spent in developing methods and techniques for assessing the dependability of technological systems, and assessing or estimating the levels of safety and associated risks. A wide spectrum of engineering, natural and economic sciences has been involved in this assessment effort. The developments have moved beyond research endeavours, they have been applied and utilised in real socio-technical environments and have become established - while modern technology continues to present new challenges and to raise new questions. Consequently, Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management covers both well-established practices and open issues in the fields addressed by the Conference, identifying areas where maturity has been reached and those where more development is needed. The papers reflect a wide variety of disciplines, such as principles and theory of reliability and risk analysis, systems modelling and simulation, consequence assessment, human and organisational factors, structural reliability methods, software reliability and safety, insights and lessons from risk studies and management/decision making. A diverse range of application areas are represented including aviation and space, chemical processing, civil engineering, energy, environment, information technology, legal, manufacturing, health care, defence, transportation and waste management

Exploiting the FLOSS paradigm in collaborative e-learning : application to e-government

Modern societies face high demands for skilled professionals, able to successfully design, deploy and utilize complex Information Technology (IT) –enabled socio-technical systems at ever- increasing levels of reliability and security. Contrary to traditional education practices, the high-level training required to fulfill this demand should rely on the principle that the learners are themselves responsible for their learning process, that they have control over this process, and that the process aims at developing cross-disciplinary and problem-driven competences, not only at acquiring content knowledge. However, such training requires the presence of a highly interactive, problem-oriented environment for technology-supported learning (or e-learning). This poster presents a doctoral research project, which aims at designing, validating and monitoring a collaborative e-learning environment based on the principles of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). In order to validate its outcomes, the project will rely on two real-life professional training programs: in Software Engineering for software managers and in e-Government for public managers. The poster presents the objectives, research methodology and expected results from this project.(undefined

Safety-Critical Systems and Agile Development: A Mapping Study

In the last decades, agile methods had a huge impact on how software is developed. In many cases, this has led to significant benefits, such as quality and speed of software deliveries to customers. However, safety-critical systems have widely been dismissed from benefiting from agile methods. Products that include safety critical aspects are therefore faced with a situation in which the development of safety-critical parts can significantly limit the potential speed-up through agile methods, for the full product, but also in the non-safety critical parts. For such products, the ability to develop safety-critical software in an agile way will generate a competitive advantage. In order to enable future research in this important area, we present in this paper a mapping of the current state of practice based on {a mixed method approach}. Starting from a workshop with experts from six large Swedish product development companies we develop a lens for our analysis. We then present a systematic mapping study on safety-critical systems and agile development through this lens in order to map potential benefits, challenges, and solution candidates for guiding future research.Comment: Accepted at Euromicro Conf. on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications 2018, Prague, Czech Republi

Confidence in assessment decisions when using ICT

The central question addressed in this paper is: How can teachers and schools have confidence in their assessment decisions when using information communication technologies (ICT)? The answer centres on what makes quality assessment. Assessing and evaluating children’s achievement and progress is critical to development of sound curriculum programmes that focus on student outcomes. With the increasing use of ICT in schools and classrooms for a range of assessment purposes such as recording, data analysis and online activities, teachers and school leaders must be assessment capable in order to make informed decisions about assessment design, selection and modification that utilises ICT. Based on examining assessment purpose and the three principles of quality assessment (validity, reliability and manageability), this paper offers guidelines for classroom teachers, those with responsibility for student achievement and those who lead ICT policy and practice in schools to be critical consumers of ICT-based assessment tools, strategies and evidence. Vignettes of assessment practice using ICT are used to illustrate sound school and classroom practices in relation to validity, reliability, and manageability. Drawing from the work of assessment writers such as Crooks, Sutton, and Darr, the guidelines will assist teachers in the effective use of ICT for both formal and informal information gathering as well as for analysis and interpretation of information for summative and formative purposes. This knowledge is needed to underpin teacher confidence in their assessment decisions when using ICT towards ‘best fit’ for purpose

An agile business process and practice meta-model

Business Process Management (BPM) encompasses the discovery, modelling, monitoring, analysis and improvement of business processes. Limitations of traditional BPM approaches in addressing changes in business requirements have resulted in a number of agile BPM approaches that seek to accelerate the redesign of business process models. Meta-models are a key BPM feature that reduce the ambiguity of business process models. This paper describes a meta-model supporting the agile version of the Business Process and Practice Alignment Methodology (BPPAM) for business process improvement, which captures process information from actual work practices. The ability of the meta-model to achieve business process agility is discussed and compared with other agile meta-models, based on definitions of business process flexibility and agility found in the literature. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V