V.: The Challenges of Software Certification

The safety critical community – those involved in developing and verifying safety critical systems – is very conser-vative and adverse to change. Meanwhile, technology is changing rapidly, and there is pressure to adapt systems to improve their efficiency and safety. This presents a number of challenges. The community has already addressed some; others are in process. While the guidance on airborne software certification is mature, the issues with software reuse, military avionics certification, ground-based software, and object oriented technology are still evolving. Computer-controlled systems pervadeour lives. We take many of them for granted, although many are critical to our safety. Dire consequences may result if the software in an automobile’s computer-controlled braking system failed during a highway maneuver. Software faults in the automobile’s computer may cause the brakes to malfunction. What can be done to make sure that this software does not contribute to the cause o