Software Engineering of Safety-Critical Systems: Themes from Practitioners

This study addresses two important questions related to engineering of safety-critical software and software-intensive systems. The first question is: which software and software-intensive systems should be considered safety critical? The second question is: what processes, design practices, and tools have practitioners been using for building these systems? We answer these questions through an analysis of unstructured interviews with experienced engineers who self-describe as working on safety-critical systems. Then, a thematic analysis of these responses was conducted. The results of this study are intended to provide guidance to those building safety-critical systems and have implications on state engineering licensure boards, in the determination of legal liability, and in risk assessment for policymakers, corporate governors, and insurance executives.