CS 4001A
SOFTWARE SAFETY ASSIGNMENT
Due: Thursday, June 9

Read the paper and answer the following questions. Please keep all answers to one paragraph. You should work alone on this assignment.

1. In the view of the paper, what was the single most significant contributor to the accidents? How about in your view?
2. Based upon the technical descriptions of the software given in the paper, which phase, in your opinion, of the system development process was weakest (contributed most to the problems)? Why?
3. What was the chief weakness of the study, as indicated by the authors?
4. What, in your opinion, are the weaknesses of fault tree analysis in judging the safety of software?
5. Of the approaches to software V & V (verification and validation) of which you are aware, which, in your opinion, would be the most effective in increasing the safety of the software in a life-critical application? Why?
6. What, if any, were the differences in roles played by the Canadian and US regulatory agencies?
7. What, in your opinion, should be the role of government regulatory agencies in relation to the safety of software for life-critical systems? Please explain.
8. Was the paper effectively presented? If so, indicate what techniques the authors used to make it effective. If not, what could be done to improve the presentation. I am not asking how the study could be improved, just the presentation.
9. Suggest some ways in which educational institutions such as Georgia Tech could train students in the production of safety critical software?
10. Did the paper cause you to change the way you will develop software in the future? If so, indicate how. If not, indicate why not.