The Australian Computer Society

About the Course:

There is considerable anecdotal evidence that "requirements problems" are the biggest source of difficulty in producing software for safety critical systems - but what does this really mean? The tutorial will try to illuminate this issue by considering both technical and economic problems that arise from errors in requirements. It will then go on to explain the challenges which need to be addressed to overcome these problems, including much better integration of safety analyses with system and software requirements.

There is no simple solution to these challenges, and the tutorial will discuss a number of strategies for ameliorating the problems, including:

• Management of requirements and design in hierarchical development, and use of multi-faceted system models;
• Adaptation of classical approaches to requirements engineering, e.g. use cases;
• Use of family analysis for evolving product lines;
• Integration of hazard analyses with requirements;
• Use of limited and focused formal methods.

Where practical, the approach will be illustrated by reference to well-known methods and tools such as SCR and DOORS.

Who should attend:

The tutorial is aimed at systems and software engineers who are engaged in producing, reviewing or using requirements, and the managers of safety critical systems projects. The tutorial will involve a number of practical example sessions.

About the presenter: John A McDermid MA, PhD, CEng, FBCS, FIEE, FRAeS

John McDermid was appointed to a chair in Software Engineering at the University of York in 1987 where, he built up a new research group in high integrity systems engineering (HISE). The group studies a broad range of issues in systems, software and safety engineering, and works closely with the UK aerospace industry. Professor McDermid is the Director of the Rolls-Royce funded University Technology Centre (UTC) in Systems and Software Engineering and the BAE SYSTEMS-funded Dependable Computing System Centre (DCSC). The work in these two centres was a significant factor in the award of the 1996 Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education to the University. He is author or editor of 6 books, and has published about 250 papers. He has a good working relationship with the Software Verification Research Centre and is a frequent visitor to Australia, and hopes to make it to the de Bortoli winery one day!

The course is sponsored by the ACS's Technical Committee on Safety Critical Systems.

Registration details:

Please register by 30 June 2001, preferably by 31 May for planning purposes.

Fees include GST and cover attendance, lunch, refreshments & course notes. (Participants are expected to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.)

Click here for a Registration form and information about fees.

For questions about the course, please contact: