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Authors:
P. Lindsay and G. Smith
Title:
Safety Asurance of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Software
Date:
May 2000.
Keywords:
COTS, safety, safety standards.
Abstract:
Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS)
software is increasingly being suggested for use in systems development, for
reasons including cost, functionality, useability, testedness, availability of
support and upgrades. At the same time, standards for use of software in
safety-related systems are becoming increasingly stringent. This paper examines
the issue of providing safety assurance for systems involving COTS software,
and surveys what international standards say about the issue. The strengths and
weaknesses of a number of different approaches are discussed. The paper
suggests that “whole life-cycle” costing estimates, including
estimates of the cost of developing and maintaining safety assurance, be made
prior to deciding whether to use COTS components in safety-related
applications.