Early safety analysis: From use cases to component-based software development

Software safety can be a very difficult issue in component-based system development, mainly due to the complex interactions among a large number of system components. In such a context, identifying safety issues in the stage of requirements analysis needs to be complemented by seamless transition from requirements to component design, in order to incorporate corresponding prevention mechanisms in the design model. To this end, we investigate a safety analysis method from the early stage of requirements engineering in the context of component-based software development. Our approach provides a systematic translation from semiformal use cases to a formal specification language RSML-e , uses model checking for formal safety analysis, and defines systematic transition from use cases to early component design based on the KobrA approach. We demonstrate how our approach can be used in requirements specifications and be associated in high level design using a hypothetical elevator system