Software System Safety and Technical Integrity

The purpose of this technical paper and associated SAE panel discussion is to present an overview of software safety and technical integrity needs for “new” aircraft and software intensive systems development. Most of the software safety and integrity concepts presented are already proven and accepted in the commercial aircraft domain and are becoming more widely accepted for military tactical and strategic airlift aircraft. Even newer fighter/attack systems now accept the need for safety-critical functions list and more software safety focus. The focus is on effective, efficient, and essential software safety processes and modern methodologies to ensure safety-critical functions, either commanded, controlled or monitored by software, are prevented from contributing to Catastrophic and Hazardous failure conditions and resultant hazards. The focus will be on system safety planning to the right level, software/system safety analyses of identified S-C functions to derive adequate safety-critical requirements and design safety features to mitigate risks, and to ensure solid safety verification evidence is documented as proof of meeting airworthiness and certification criteria. Major overview topics include: software safety aspects of system level planning; system safety analyses; safety requirements implemented in software; safety-critical requirements and functions testing, and integrated system verification. The theme is: “software safety is an integral part of technical integrity and is one of many essential engineering, technical and operations aspects leading to system and product integrity”.