Semester 2, 2008
Safety is a whole life cycle issue that relates to all
aspects of the system. Hardware, software, operating procedures, planning,
development, testing, maintenance, installation, commissioning, decommissioning,
disposal and other aspects are considered in a safety program.
For most safety-critical systems, it is insufficient to
develop a safe system, and the system must be shown to be acceptably safe. The
acceptance of a safety case forms an important part of such a product. Early
identification of safety issues and assessment of the safety-criticality of a
system are valuable in preventing costly mitigations and rework being used to
produce an acceptably safe product. A number of disasters have shown that for
many organisations, the entire process of analysing, specifying, developing and
deploying safety-critical systems needs improvement.
The lecture component of this course explains the principles
and practice of safety management and engineering and the unique challenges of
computer-based systems. The content blends discussion of management and
development issues with practical experience in safety analysis techniques.
Topics covered include: hazard identification and risk analysis, safe system
design, safety analysis techniques, safe software engineering, system hazard
analysis, safety cases, safety management and human factors. Techniques covered
include: Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP) and Computer Hazard and
Operability Studies (CHAZOP), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Event Tree Analysis
(ETA), Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Failure Modes Effects and
Criticality Analysis (FMECA), and Goal Structured Notation (GSN).
More details can be found in the course profile.