Committee on Certifiably Dependable Software Systems's Books

Software for Dependable Systems

Sufficient Evidence?

By: National Research Council,Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences,Computer Science and Telecommunications Board,Committee on Certifiably Dependable Software Systems

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Software for Dependable Systems

Sufficient Evidence?

By: National Research Council,Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences,Computer Science and Telecommunications Board,Committee on Certifiably Dependable Software Systems

The focus of Software for Dependable Systems is a set of fundamental principles that underlie software system dependability and that suggest a different approach to the development and assessment of dependable software. Unfortunately, it is difficult to assess the dependability of software. The field of software engineering suffers from a pervasive lack of evidence about the incidence and severity of software failures; about the dependability of existing software systems; about the efficacy of existing and proposed development methods; about the benefits of certification schemes; and so on. There are many anecdotal reports, which-although often useful for indicating areas of concern or highlighting promising avenues of research-do little to establish a sound and complete basis for making policy decisions regarding dependability. The committee regards claims of extraordinary dependability that are sometimes made on this basis for the most critical of systems as unsubstantiated, and perhaps irresponsible. This difficulty regarding the lack of evidence for system dependability leads to two conclusions: (1) that better evidence is needed, so that approaches aimed at improving the dependability of software can be objectively assessed, and (2) that, for now, the pursuit of dependability in software systems should focus on the construction and evaluation of evidence. The committee also recognized the importance of adopting the practices that are already known and used by the best developers; this report gives a sample of such practices. Some of these (such as systematic configuration management and automated regression testing) are relatively easy to adopt; others (such as constructing hazard analyses and threat models, exploiting formal notations when appropriate, and applying static analysis to code) will require new training for many developers. However valuable, though, these practices are in themselves no silver bullet, and new techniques and methods will be required in order to build future software systems to the level of dependability that will be required.

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Page Count

148

Publisher

National Academies Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0309103940

ISBN 13

9780309103947

Summary of a Workshop on Software Certification and Dependability

By: National Research Council,Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences,Computer Science and Telecommunications Board,Committee on Certifiably Dependable Software Systems

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Summary of a Workshop on Software Certification and Dependability

By: National Research Council,Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences,Computer Science and Telecommunications Board,Committee on Certifiably Dependable Software Systems

Certification of critical software systems (e.g., for safety and security) is important to help ensure their dependability. Today, certification relies as much on evaluation of the software development process as it does on the system's properties. While the latter are preferable, the complexity of these systems usually makes them extremely difficult to evaluate. To explore these and related issues, the National Coordination Office for Information technology Research and Development asked the NRC to undertake a study to assess the current state of certification in dependable systems. The study is in two phases: the first to frame the problem and the second to assess it. This report presents a summary of a workshop held as part of the first phase. The report presents a summary of workshop participants' presentations and subsequent discussion. It covers, among other things, the strengths and limitations of process; new challenges and opportunities; experience to date; organization context; and cost-effectiveness of software engineering techniques. A consensus report will be issued upon completion of the second phase.

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