Traceability Management for Safety Software

Method Purpose Short description of the method's purpose and main benefits

Method description A detailed description of the method

Traceability between activities is an impact analysis to check:

Decisions that were made at an earlier stage are adequately implemented in later stages (forward traceability);
Decision that were made at a later stage are actually required and mandated by earlier decisions (backward traceability).

Forward traceability is broadly concerned with checking that a requirement is adequately addressed in later software development stages, contributing to its confirmation. Forward traceability is valuable at several points in the safety software development, for instance:

From the system safety requirements to the software safety requirements;
From the software safety requirements specification to the software architecture;
From the software safety requirements specification to the software design;
From the software design specification to the module and integration test specifications;
From the system and software design requirements for hardware/software integration to the hardware/software integration test specifications;
From the software safety requirements specification to the software safety validation plan;
From the software safety requirements specification to the software modification plan (including re-verification and re-validation);
From the software design specification to the software verification (including data verification) plan.

Backward traceability is broadly concerned with checking that every implementation (interpreted in a broad context, and not confined to code implementation) decision is clearly justified by some requirement. If this justification is absent, then the implementation contains something unnecessary that adds to the complexity but not necessarily address any genuine requirement of the safety-related system. Backward traceability is valuable at several points in the safety software development, such as:

From the safety requirements, to the perceived safety needs;
From the software architecture, to the software safety requirements specification;
From the software detailed design to the software architecture;
From the software code to the software detailed design;
From the software safety validation plan, to the software safety requirements specification;
From the software modification plan, to the software safety requirements specification;
From the software verification (including data verification) plan, to the software design specification

Method Strengths A listof the strengths of the method

Requirement coverage assurance
Robustness of the design

Method Limitations The limitations of the method

Time-consuming (most often; it also depends on the tool support

Method References Bibliography references to papers about the method.

Cleland-Huang, J., Gotel, O. and Zisman, A. (eds.): Software and systems traceability. Heidelberg, Springer. 2012

Method Dimensions

Evaluation Environment Type Type of environment where the method is applied. It can be more than one type of environment. (Dimension 1)

Evaluation Type Type of evaluation performed with that method. If a method is hybrid, more than one type can be selected. (Dimension 2)

Type of Component Under Evaluation Type of components that can be evaluated with that method. It can be more than one type. (Dimension 3)

Evaluation Stage The evaluation stage where the method is used. (Dimension 5)

Purpose of the Component Under Evaluation The type of purpose that can be evaluated by a method. It can be more than one type. (Dimension 6)

Type of Requirement Under Evaluation The type of requirements that a method is able to evaluate. It can be more than one type. (Dimension 7)

Evaluation Performance Indicator The type of evaluation criteria or KPI that a method is able to improve. It can be more than one type. (Dimension 8)

Relations

Related Methods A method could be related to other methods.

Tools A method can use zero or more tools.

Part Method A method (when it is a combination: Combination of method artefact that is a specialization of a V&V Method) could be composed of a set of V&V Methods.

Test Case or Verification and Validation activity Test Case or V&V activity performed in a Use Case. We will link to the method to the test cases where the method is used.

Standards A method can be linked with standards.

Context

Workflow

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