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Testing Safety-Related Software

A Practical Handbook

  • Book
  • © 1999

Overview

Editors:
  1. Stewart N. Gardiner

    1. George House, Glasgow, UK

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  • Covers most up-to-date standards including the relevant IEEE and IEC standards Presents clear structured guidelines on leading test practices Shows how proper testing can result in acceptable safety integrity levels Based on the experiences of nine partners from fields as diverse as oil and gas production, transportation, aerospace, nuclear power, and defense Discusses timing analysis and simulation (which lack coverage in general)

  • No other books currently offer a similar survey of testing techniques for practitioners

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction

    • Stewart N. Gardiner
    Pages 1-31

  3. Testing and the Safety Case

    • Stewart N. Gardiner
    Pages 33-57

  4. Designing for Testability

    • Stewart N. Gardiner
    Pages 59-82

  5. Testing of Timing Aspects

    • Stewart N. Gardiner
    Pages 83-100

  6. The Test Environment

    • Stewart N. Gardiner
    Pages 101-123

  7. The Use of Simulators

    • Stewart N. Gardiner
    Pages 125-141

  8. Test Adequacy

    • Stewart N. Gardiner
    Pages 143-154

  9. Statistical Software Testing

    • Stewart N. Gardiner
    Pages 155-170

  10. Empirical Quantifiable Measures of Testing

    • Stewart N. Gardiner
    Pages 171-194

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 195-226
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Keywords

About this book

As software is very complex, we can only test a limited range of the possible states of the software in a reasonable time frame. In 1972, Dijkstra [1] claimed that 'program testing can be used to show the pres­ ence of bugs, but never their absence' to persuade us that a testing approach alone is not acceptable. This frequently quoted statement represented our knowledge about software testing at that time, and after over 25 years intensive practice, experiment and research, although software testing has been developed into a validation and ver­ ification technique indispensable to software engineering discipline, Dijkstra's state­ ment is still valid. To gain confidence in the safety of software based systems we must therefore assess both the product and the process of its development. Testing is one of the main ways of assessing the product, but it must be seen, together with process assessment, in the context of an overall safety case. This book provides guidance on how to make best use of the limited resources available for testing and to maximise the contribution that testing of the product makes to the safety case. 1.1 Context The safety assurance of software based systems is a complex task as most fail­ ures stem from design errors committed by humans. To provide safety assur­ on the integrity of the system and put ance, evidence needs to be gathered forward as an argued case (the safety case) that the system is adequately safe.

Editors and Affiliations

  • George House, Glasgow, UK

    Stewart N. Gardiner

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