A Method to Specify and Verify Requirements for Safety Critical System

Hye Sun Lim, Seok-Won Lee

http://doi.org/10.5626/JOK.2017.44.9.893

In safety-critical systems, software defects may have serious consequences. Therefore, defects should be considered during the requirements specification process, which is the first step of a software development lifecycle. Stakeholder requirements that are usually written in natural language are difficult to derived, and there may also be defects due to ambiguity and inaccuracy. To address these issues, we propose a requirement specification method using a standardized Boilerplate and a GSN Model. The Boilerplate is a semi-standard language that follows a predefined format. Due to its ability to provide a consistent representation of the requirements, boilerplate helps stakeholders avoid ambiguities about what they mean and to define the exact meaning of the requirement. Meanwhile, GSN is recognized notation to prepare a Safety Case to prove to authorities that a system is safe. It can be expressed as a functional goal, e.g., Safety Evidence, etc. The proposed study allows an analyst to easily identify a fault from the early stage of the software development lifecycle. The Boilerplate and GSN Model are designed to specify the requirements of safety critical systems and to prove safety conformity through a connection with Safety Evidence. In addition, the proposed approach is also useful to develop secure software by correcting deficiencies in the requirements found during this process.