[SystemSafety] NYTimes: The Next Accident Awaits

[RICQUE Bertrand (SAGEM DEFENSE SECURITE)]

Maybe a difference should be made between "mature" industries (as aerospace), for which everything that is written here is to be understood in the context of persons knowing what it is about, and industries that even don't know half of the vocabulary we are using here. I guess that for these ones, prescribed methods, prescribed documents and imperfect inspectors is better than nothing.

Bertrand Ricque
Program Manager
Optronics and Defence Division
Sights Program
Mob : +33 6 87 47 84 64
Tel : +33 1 59 11 96 82
Bertrand.ricque at sagem.com




-----Original Message-----
From: systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Tom Ferrell
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2014 5:32 PM
To: systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] NYTimes: The Next Accident Awaits

As is often human nature, there is a lot in this discussion that is couched in terms of 'either-or' rather than 'both-and.'  For many of the reasons cited by Nancy, it would be very difficult to completely replace any of the extant certification frameworks wholesale with safety or assurance cases.  For safety cases to be helpful, they need to be combined with many of the aspects of our current certification framework, not used as a complete replacement.  I think the idea of an overarching 'case' to help organize and present for review and approval of certification data would be helpful, especially if it can be used to focus limited resources on the correct questions to be asking of any new or modified design/implementation.  The current prescriptive guidance used in aviation-related software is only getting ever more detailed and prescriptive.  It is causing significant focus to be directed at detailed data generation that increasingly misses system to software requirements allocation issues and emergent system complexity issues.
In other words, we have moved from protecting the forest by assuring the trees to trying to protect the forest by assuring the leaves of the trees.  It is an unsustainable path.  Anything that causes a refocusing on the system, its interaction with other systems, and the contribution of the software to the robustness of those interactions would be very helpful at this point.

Tom Ferrell
Consulting FAA DER
_______________________________________________
The System Safety Mailing List
systemsafety at TechFak.Uni-Bielefeld.DE
#
" Ce courriel et les documents qui lui sont joints peuvent contenir des informations confidentielles, être soumis aux règlementations relatives au contrôle des exportations ou ayant un caractère privé. S'ils ne vous sont pas destinés, nous vous signalons qu'il est strictement interdit de les divulguer, de les reproduire ou d'en utiliser de quelque manière que ce soit le contenu. Toute exportation ou réexportation non autorisée est interdite Si ce message vous a été transmis par erreur, merci d'en informer l'expéditeur et de supprimer immédiatement de votre système informatique ce courriel ainsi que tous les documents qui y sont attachés."
******
" This e-mail and any attached documents may contain confidential or proprietary information and may be subject to export control laws and regulations. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any dissemination, copying of this e-mail and any attachments thereto or use of their contents by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited. Unauthorized export or re-export is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please advise the sender immediately and delete this e-mail and all attached documents from your computer system."
#