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This area of the SCSC website hosts Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) standardisation information and related guidance.
It can be reached through scsc.uk/gsn or goalstructuringnotation.info.
The GSN information is created and maintained by the GSN Standard Working Group (GSN_SWG), a sub-group of the SCSC's Assurance Case Working Group (ACWG).
The principal objective of this site is to disseminate information and resources related to GSN.
The following is a list of known tools that support GSN. A GSN Tool is considered to be something that facilitates development, presentation, and maintenance of an (assurance) argument using the Goal Structuring Notation.
This list does NOT form an endorsement, recommendation or validation of the level of conformance with the GSN standard. It is intended to provide signposting to the existance of the tool and an abstract of the tools capabilities, typically provided from the tool provider's website/marketing material. It is not a complete list and may not be up to date with the latest releases or features. Tools are listed in alphabetical order.
This page was last updated on 15th December 2022.
If you have any comments on the tools, or would like to add a tool to the list, please add comments to our forum (here)
"Engineered atop formal foundations, the Assurance Case Automation Toolset (AdvoCATE) supports the development and management of safety/assurance cases, providing novel capabilities in automating their production, with applicability to safety-critical applications in general (e.g., nuclear power, road and rail transportation, defense, medical devices, etc.), and aviation systems in particular.
AdvoCATE 2.0 is an Eclipse application [that] facilitates creating safety/assurance cases (as opposed to only the underlying structured arguments) and, more broadly, organizing project assurance activities. It is architected around an integrated assurance model that combines hazard analysis, requirements, structured arguments, barrier models (bow tie diagrams), and verification artifacts. "
AdvoCATE supports core GSN, Modular and Pattern extensions. Contact Ewen Denney for availability (contact details on the NASA website).
"ASCE – the Assurance and Safety Case Environment [claims to be] the most widely adopted commercial software for the creation and management of safety and assurance cases. It reduces project and system risk through effective communication of the structured argument and associated evidence. Using ASCE makes the management of safety information and demonstration of regulatory compliance easier, more efficient, and more cost effective."
ASCE is a mature product, now in its fifth generation. ASCE Version 5.1 was released in October 2022. It claims ASCE has full support for GSN Standard Version 3 out of the box (the GSN modular extension is supported via a separate Modular GSN plugin available on a commercial basis - at extra cost). ASCE also provides support for a number of other notations, including Adelard's own CAE (Claims Argument Evidence).
"Astah System Safety is a modeling tool for safety-critical systems to support system architecture modeling, system safety assessment and analysis by incorporating the following modeling languages and techniques in one tool: – SysML; – STAMP/STPA ; – GSN/D-Case; – ASAM SCDL. Traceability is assured between models (e.g. requirements and solutions) and API enables the integration with other applications.
GSN / D-Case: You can visualize the safety arguments using GSN (Goal Structuring Notation) and also D-Case that effectively works for consensus building and accountability achievement. Astah System Safety supports model conversion between GSN and other diagram types. For instance, you can convert SysML blocks to Solutions, requirements to goals. Hyperlinks are automatically added between models to assure the traceability."
Astah's stand alone GSN tool is being discontinued, but GSN is supported in their System Safety tool. It is not clear what version of GSN standard is supported.
"D-Case Editor is a typed assurance case editor. which has been implemented as an Eclips plug-in using Eclipse GMF. The key features are: Supporting GSN; GSN Pattern Library function and prototype Type Checking function; Consistency Checking of D-Case description; Monitoring of target systems.
D-Case is the name of our research team for assurance cases. The letter "D" emphasize our focus on Dependability. Our team is one of the DEOS project teams. DEOS aims to develop dependable embedded systems.We observe assurance cases are crucial for sustaining dependability of systems in an open environment."
D-Case editor does not appear to have been updated since 2011 (Windows XP/Windows 7 era). It appears to support GSN based on T.Kelly's original PhD thesis.
"This little program renders in a YAML format to a scalable vector graphics (SVG) image. You can create an SVG file with a command line like 'gsn2x <yourgsnfile.yaml>'. The output is an argument view in SVG format and automatically written to <yourgsnfile.svg>. If more than one input file is provided, they are treated as modules."
gsn2X is an opensource project by 'jonasthewolf' available under MIT license. The tool is based on the GSN Standard Version 3 and claims full support for Core GSN, and partial support for the Modular extension. Support for Argument Pattern, Confidence Argument or Dialectic Extensions is not planned (yet).
[Note from Editor: Pre-built binaries for Windows, Linux and MacOS are available. The Windows one doesn't appear to be signed and comes up as 'Unknown Publisher' on my PC]
"NOR-STA is a web application for collaborative assurance case management. The tool implements development of modular assurance cases, integration with evidence repositories (e.g. SharePoint, Jira), use of argument templates, argument assessment, generating reports and XML import/export.
NOR-STA maintains full history of argument evolution and enables the use of baselines. Teamworking and collaboration is supported by a flexible role-based access control (RBAC). The tool can be integrated with other systems using NOR-STA API interface (RESTful webservices). Through this API external systems can have full access to the assurance case content and assessment.
NOR-STA is not a native GSN tool, it implements a TRUST-IT argument metamodel (extended with the assessment and change management) which is mapped to GSN graphical notation. Further details of how GSN arguments are implemented in NOR-STA may be found in Argevide's white paper"
NOR-STA version 7.9 released in October 2022 implements Core GSN and partially Modular Extension and Argument Pattern Extension. The team continue to work on the Modular Extension.
"Socrates [is designed] to be a collaborative tool so everyone on your team can contribute to your assurance case, anytime and from anywhere.
Socrates can be deployed within your organization's IT infrastructure so your data remains entirely under your control. We also provide a web hosted option.
Socrates supports state of the art assurance techniques and notations including Goal Structured Notation (GSN) and Eliminative Argumentation (EA). Socrates provides multiple views of your assurance case so that you can focus on systems assurance instead of getting caught up in notational details."
Socrates is a web-based tool that was confirmed active in December 2022. It supports core GSN. Its approach to Eliminative Argumentation (EA) is seen as equivalent to GSV_V3 Dialectic notation extension and stems from the same source material, although its concrete syntax is different.