Software safety and economics

A panel session regarding the economics of building or retrofitting safety into software systems is summarized. The issues discussed include cost benefit analysis of security systems; investment in safety-related activities; a definition of software safety; economic analysis methodology; the measurement of the economic utility of software systems, and the safety-related attributes of a system and the software life cycle; the level of formality that should be attempted in developing economic models of safety-critical software systems; and traditional cost-benefit analysis approaches for making investment decisions concerning safety-critical systems.<
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