An effective technique for the software requirements analysis of NPP safety-critical systems, based on software inspection, requirements traceability, and formal specification

Seo Ryong Koo, Poong Hyun Seong, Junbeom Yoo, Sung Deok Cha, Yeong Jae Yoo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

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).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)248-260
Number of pages13
JournalReliability Engineering and System Safety
Volume89
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005 Sept
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by KNICS (Korea Nuclear I&C System) R&D center and NRL project.

Keywords

  • Formal method
  • Inspection
  • Safety-critical systems
  • Software requirements analysis
  • Traceability
  • V&V

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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