June 2020	Safety Systems	Volume 28  Number 2
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SCSC Working Groups

The Safety-Critical Systems Club is committed to supporting the activities of specialist working groups for areas of special interest to club members.  The purpose of these groups is to share industry best practice, establish suitable work and research programmes, develop industry guidance documents and influence the development of standards.

Assurance Cases

The Assurance Cases Working Group (ACWG) has been established to provide guidance on all aspects of assurance cases including construction, review and maintenance. The ACWG will:

●         Be broader than safety, and will address interaction and conflict between related topics

●         Address aspects such as proportionality, rationale behind the guidance, focus on risk, confidence and conformance

●         Consider the role of the counter-argument and evidence and the treatment of potential bias in arguments

One of the working group’s initial activities is to take on board the maintenance of the Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) Community standard.

Lead Phil Williams phil.williams@scsc.uk

 

Security Informed Safety

The Security Informed Safety Working Group (SISWG) aims to capture cross-domain best practice to help engineers find the ‘wood through the trees’ with all the different security standards, their implication and integration with safety design principles to aid the design and protection of secure safety-critical systems and systems with a safety implication.

The working group aims to produce clear and current guidance on methods to design and protect safety-related and safety-critical systems in a way that reflects prevailing and emerging best practice. The guidance will allow safety, security and other stakeholders to navigate the different security standards, understand their applicability and their integration with safety principles, and ultimately aid the design and protection of secure safety-related and safety-critical systems.

Lead Tom Turner tom.turner@scsc.uk

Data Safety Initiative

Data in safety related systems is not currently sufficiently addressed in current safety management practices and standards.

It is acknowledged that data has been a contributing factor in several incidents to date. There are clear business and societal benefits, in terms of reduced harm, reduced commercial liabilities and improved business efficiencies, in investigating and addressing outstanding challenges related to safety of data.

The Data Safety Initiative Working Group (DSIWG) aims to have clear guidance on how data (as distinct from the software and hardware) should be managed in a safety related context, which will reflect emerging best practice.

Lead Mike Parsons mike.parsons@scsc.uk

Safety of Autonomous Systems

The specific safety challenges of autonomous systems and the technologies that enable autonomy are not adequately addressed by current safety management practices and standards.

It is clear that autonomous systems can introduce many new paths to accidents, and that autonomous system technologies may not be practical to analyse adequately using accepted current practice. Whilst there are differences in detail, and standards, between domains many of the underlying challenges appear similar and it is likely that common approaches to core problems will prove possible.

The Safety of Autonomous Systems Working Group (SASWG) aims to produce clear guidance on how autonomous systems and autonomy technologies should be managed in a safety related context, in a way that reflects emerging best practice.

Lead Rob Alexander rob.alexander@scsc.uk

 

Multi- and Manycore Safety

It is becoming harder and harder to source single-core devices and there is a growing need for increased processing capability with a smaller physical footprint in all applications. Devices with multiple cores can perform many processes at once, meaning it is difficult to establish (with sufficient evidence) whether or not these processes can be relied upon for safety-related purposes.

Parallel processes need to access the same shared resources, including memory, cache and external interfaces, so they may contend for the same resources. Resource contention is a source of interference which can prevent or disrupt completion of the processes, meaning it is difficult to know with a defined uncertainty the maximum time each process will take to complete (Worst Case Execution Time, WCET) or whether the data stored in shared memory has been altered by other processes.

The Multi- and Manycore Safety Working Group (MCWG) has been established to explore the future ways of assuring the safety of multi- and manycore implementations.

Lead Louise Harney louise.harney@scsc.uk

 

Ontology

The Ontology Working Group (OWG) develops ontologies that will form the basis of SCSC guidance, as well as having wider industrial and academic applications.

The OWG is currently working on the definition of an ontology of risk for application in guidance for risk-based decision making - notably safety and security - and for which ISO 31000 Risk Management principles are to be applied.

The Data Safety Working Group (DSIWG) developed the core aspects of the Risk Ontology, which has been migrated to this working group. The Risk Ontology will form the upper ontology to the Data Safety Ontology that the DSIWG will continue to develop.

Lead Dave Banham ontology@scsc.uk

 

Covid-19

The Covid-19 Working Group is involved with discussion, analysis and assistance related to the Coronavirus. The group meets remotely to see what a systems and assurance view of the situation brings. The group has also created a discussion group on the SCSC website, for thoughts and ideas related to the work of the group.

Members are all experienced engineers, used to making reasoned arguments about safety. The aim is to apply the groups considerable technical expertise to the problem and find and assure appropriate solutions.

Lead Mike Parsons mike.parsons@scsc.uk

Service Assurance

Risks presented by safety-related services are rarely explicitly recognised or addressed in current safety management practices, guidelines and standards. It is likely that service (as distinct from system) failures have led to safety incidents and accidents, but this has not always been recognised. The Service Assurance Working Group (SAWG) has been set up to produce clear and practical guidance on how services should be managed in a safety related context, to reflect emerging best practice.

Lead Mike Parsons mike.parsons@scsc.uk

 

SCSC Safety Culture Working Group (SCWG)

A new working group is being established to provide guidance on creating and maintaining an effective safety culture. The group seeks to improve safety culture within teams working with safety-critical systems. This is a well-researched area with a lot of guidance already in place, so the inaugural meeting will consider what is working well, what is not effective, and where guidance is required. The meeting will also provide an opportunity to discuss any particular aspects attendees are interested in taking forward, and to agree a firm purpose for the SCWG.

Please contact waleed.chaudhry@scsc.uk or michael.wright@greenstreet.co.uk if you are interested in joining this group.

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