Effective application of Systems Assurance techniques on complex railway development projects

Nowadays, most railway system owners or developers specify the application of Systems Assurance (SA) techniques in their technical requirements with an aim to ensure the success of the project. How effective are these techniques to the success of the projects and how can the benefits be optimised? The author has conducted a benchmarking study of SA techniques to identify the most commonly used international SA standards and recognised guidance. Good practice was established based on the result of the study. The tools and techniques used were studied and compared specifically as to their effectiveness for delivery of the railway development projects based on the author's experience. The author concludes that the effective application of SA techniques is critical to the success of complex railway projects. For effective SA application, the author recommends: ldr carrying out a process for requirements management; ldr seeking owner's/developer's commitment on adopting a SA approach covering all subcontracting parties; ldr considering future operation and maintenance practices early in the project development lifecycle; ldr ensuring the seamless design integration with SA activities; ldr improving the methodology of existing system performance data collection; ldr focusing on new or modified items while maintaining the same level of safety and reliability for unchanged items especially their interfaces; ldr focusing on enhancing the system RAMS performance instead of just generating paper; and ldr having external professional review on the project development especially for complex and safety critical systems.