Efficient software component reuse in safety-critical systems --- an empirical study

Authors:
Rikard Land;Mikael Åkerholm;Jan Carlson
Affiliations:
CrossControl, Västerås, Sweden;CrossControl, Västerås, Sweden;School of Innovation, Design, and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden
Venue:
SAFECOMP'12 Proceedings of the 31st international conference on Computer Safety, Reliability, and Security
Year:
2012

Citing 7
Cited 0

Software reuse: a holistic approach

Software reuse: a holistic approach
Fault Contribution Trees for Product Families

ISSRE '02 Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering
Enabling predictable assembly

Journal of Systems and Software - Special issue on: Component-based software engineering
A contract-based approach to designing safe systems

SCS '03 Proceedings of the 8th Australian workshop on Safety critical systems and software - Volume 33
Safety Analysis of Software Product Lines Using State-Based Modeling

ISSRE '05 Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering
COTS Selection Best Practices in Literature and in Industry

ICSR '08 Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Software Reuse: High Confidence Software Reuse in Large Systems
Reuse with Software Components - A Survey of Industrial State of Practice

ICSR '09 Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Software Reuse: Formal Foundations of Reuse and Domain Engineering

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

The development of software components to be reused in safety-critical systems involves a number of challenges. These are related to both the goals of using the component in several systems, with different definitions of system-specific hazards, and on the high demands of today's safety standards, which assume a top-down system and software development process. A large part of the safety-related activities is therefore left for integrator, and there is a risk that a pre-existing component will neither be feasible nor more efficient to use than internal development of the same functionality. In this paper we address five important challenges, based on an empirical study consisting of interviews with experts in the field, and a case study. The result is twelve concrete practices found to improve the overall efficiency of such component development, and their subsequent reuse. These are related to the component architecture and configuration interface, component and system testing and verification, and the information to be provided with the component.