Software Systems Safety and Human Error Avoidance

Software Systems Safety has become a widely recognized issue in recent years due to the occurrence of several catastrophics directly attributed to software failures or design errors in software controlled systems. In many other instances, incidents that have been attributed to operator error may have in fact been caused by or contributed to by poor software design or implementation. The safety analysis of the operator, user and maintainer interfaces is essential if we are to design software controlled systems that both minimize and tolerate (safely) human errors. This paper will discuss the software systems safety issue and the various areas of human errors that affect the discipline. This paper will also discuss techniques used in software systems safety and the necessity for an early, integrated approach to both software systems safety and Human Factors.