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Achieving Quality Software

Including Its Application to Safety-Related Systems

  • Book
  • © 1995

Overview

Authors:
  1. David J. Smith

    1. Tonbridge, UK

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. The Background to Software Engineering and Quality

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. The meaning of quality in software

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 3-8

    3. Software failures and the life cycle

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 9-18

    4. Integrity and the safety life cycle

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 19-25

  3. Guidance, Legislation and Liability

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27
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    2. Legislation and liability

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 29-37

    3. Current standards and guidelines

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 38-58

    4. Certification and competence

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 59-65

  4. Achieving Software Quality

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 67-67
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    2. The traditional approach

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 69-89

    3. Formal methods in requirements

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 90-102

    4. Formal methods in design

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 103-111

    5. Review and test

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 112-122

    6. Static analysis

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 123-144

    7. Languages and processors

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 145-163

    8. Achieving fault tolerance in design

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 164-176

  5. Management Issues

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 177-177
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    2. Software management issues

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 179-191

    3. Metrics and modelling

      • David J. Smith
      Pages 192-205
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Keywords

About this book

The rapid growth in use of programmable technology, in nearly all sectors of Engineering, is a well-known established trend and one which there is every reason to believe will continue into the foreseeable future. The drivers of this trend include cost, flexibility, rich functionality and certain reliability and safety advantages. However, as explained in this book, these advantages have to be carefully weighed against a number of dis­ advantages which, amongst other things, have fundamental implications for reliability and safety. Ideally, a programmable system would be viewed as a fusion of hardware, software and user (or 'skinware'), operating under a set of environmental conditions. To date, such a unifying model does not exist and so hardware, software and human factors are still considered largely as three separate disciplines, albeit with certain interdependencies. Established techniques are available which enable the engineer to develop systems comprising purely hardware components to a prescribed reliability and performance. Software, however, is fundamentally different in a number of ways, and does not lend itself to equivalent analysis. A major problem with software is its poor 'visibility', and consequently the great difficulty in understanding and predicting its behaviour in all cir­ cumstances. This results in the ever-present software design flaws, or 'bugs', which have plagued the software industry from its beginnings.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Tonbridge, UK

    David J. Smith

About the author

David J. Smith, past Chairman of the Safety and Reliability Society is the author of six successful works on reliability, quality, software and statistics. He has been directly associated with this branch of engineering, in the process and telecommunications industries, for over 20 years and is well known for his courses and workshops on these subjects. He currently runs his own consultancy.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Achieving Quality Software

  • Book Subtitle: Including Its Application to Safety-Related Systems

  • Authors: David J. Smith

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0549-1

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: David J. Smith 1995

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-412-62270-0Published: 30 June 1995

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-010-4243-7Published: 10 November 2012

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-011-0549-1Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 3

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 287

  • Topics: Mechanical Engineering, Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems

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