An analysis of selected software safety standards

Standards, draft standards, and guidelines that provide requirements for the assurance of high integrity software are studied. The focus is on identifying the attributes necessary in such documents for providing reasonable assurance for high integrity software, and on identifying the relative strengths and weaknesses of the documents. The documents vary widely in their requirements and the precision with which the requirements are expressed. Security documents tend to have a narrow focus and to be more product oriented, while safety documents tend to be broad in scope and center primarily on the software development process. It is found that overall there is little relationship between the degree of risk and the rigor of applicable standards. Recommendations are provided for a base standard for the assurance of high integrity software