TY - JOUR
T1 - An effective technique for the software requirements analysis of NPP safety-critical systems, based on software inspection, requirements traceability, and formal specification
AU - Koo, Seo Ryong
AU - Seong, Poong Hyun
AU - Yoo, Junbeom
AU - Cha, Sung Deok
AU - Yoo, Yeong Jae
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by KNICS (Korea Nuclear I&C System) R&D center and NRL project.
Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2005/9
Y1 - 2005/9
N2 - A thorough requirements analysis is indispensable for developing and implementing safety-critical software systems such as nuclear power plant (NPP) software systems because a single error in the requirements can generate serious software faults. However, it is very difficult to completely analyze system requirements. In this paper, an effective technique for the software requirements analysis is suggested. For requirements verification and validation (V&V) tasks, our technique uses software inspection, requirement traceability, and formal specification with structural decomposition. Software inspection and requirements traceability analysis are widely considered the most effective software V&V methods. Although formal methods are also considered an effective V&V activity, they are difficult to use properly in the nuclear fields as well as in other fields because of their mathematical nature. In this work, we propose an integrated environment (IE) approach for requirements, which is an integrated approach that enables easy inspection by combining requirement traceability and effective use of a formal method. The paper also introduces computer-aided tools for supporting IE approach for requirements. Called the nuclear software inspection support and requirements traceability (NuSISRT), the tool incorporates software inspection, requirement traceability, and formal specification capabilities. We designed the NuSISRT to partially automate software inspection and analysis of requirement traceability. In addition, for the formal specification and analysis, we used the formal requirements specification and analysis tool for nuclear engineering (NuSRS).
AB - A thorough requirements analysis is indispensable for developing and implementing safety-critical software systems such as nuclear power plant (NPP) software systems because a single error in the requirements can generate serious software faults. However, it is very difficult to completely analyze system requirements. In this paper, an effective technique for the software requirements analysis is suggested. For requirements verification and validation (V&V) tasks, our technique uses software inspection, requirement traceability, and formal specification with structural decomposition. Software inspection and requirements traceability analysis are widely considered the most effective software V&V methods. Although formal methods are also considered an effective V&V activity, they are difficult to use properly in the nuclear fields as well as in other fields because of their mathematical nature. In this work, we propose an integrated environment (IE) approach for requirements, which is an integrated approach that enables easy inspection by combining requirement traceability and effective use of a formal method. The paper also introduces computer-aided tools for supporting IE approach for requirements. Called the nuclear software inspection support and requirements traceability (NuSISRT), the tool incorporates software inspection, requirement traceability, and formal specification capabilities. We designed the NuSISRT to partially automate software inspection and analysis of requirement traceability. In addition, for the formal specification and analysis, we used the formal requirements specification and analysis tool for nuclear engineering (NuSRS).
KW - Formal method
KW - Inspection
KW - Safety-critical systems
KW - Software requirements analysis
KW - Traceability
KW - V&V
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ress.2004.08.024
DO - 10.1016/j.ress.2004.08.024
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:15844389109
VL - 89
SP - 248
EP - 260
JO - Reliability Engineering and System Safety
JF - Reliability Engineering and System Safety
SN - 0951-8320
IS - 3
ER -