Validation of ultrahigh dependability for software-based systems
Communications of the ACM
A community club on safety-critical systems
SCS '02 Proceedings of the seventh Australian workshop conference on Safety critical systems and software 2002 - Volume 15
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Safety standards require assessment of development-process evidence for all parts of safety-related systems. In spite of this, there is a move to use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components in safety-related systems, and a usual feature of COTS products is a lack of such evidence. There is therefore a debate as to the appropriateness of COTS products in such applications. This paper discusses not only evidence, but also risk, the other issue at the heart of the COTS debate. It also addresses the other side of the debate: a challenge to the rigorous requirements of the standards. Finally, the paper proposes a convention on the evidence that should be provided to support claims for the safety of COTS items.