System software quality assurance for safety critical systems

Safety critical control logic is indispensable in any modern equipment with safety responsibility. When these systems are deployed into operation, it is the software that covertly makes most of the control decisions, with little data input from the operators. The volume of responsibility reposed on the software of control equipment has also increased over the years, making their logic more complex. For a system to meet all its safety requirements, a good system software quality assurance is absolutely vital. Safety critical systems are certified for commissioning only if they meet all statutory and regulatory obligations. The vendors of safety critical systems and the organisations responsible for certification are definitely working very hard to deliver a safe system. However, some tenets of inadequacy in the domain of system software quality assurance still abounds. This paper suggests practical quality assurance improvements that vendors can apply to their software development process. And also how the client, validators and assessors can be much more proactively engaged during the project lifecycle.