On Software Certification: We Need Product-Focused Approaches

by Alan Wassyng, Tom Maibaum, and Mark Lawford

Abstract:

In this paper we begin by examining the "certification" of a consumer product, a baby walker, that is product-focused, i.e., the certification process requires the performance of precisely defined tests on the product with measurable outcomes. We then review current practices in software certification and contrast the software regime's process-oriented approach to certification with the product-oriented approach typically used in other engineering disciplines. We make the case that product-focused certification is required to produce reliable software intensive systems. These techniques will have to be domain and even product specific to succeed.


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@inproceedings{WassyngMaibaumLawford2008,
 author = {Alan Wassyng and Tom Maibaum and Mark Lawford},
 title = {On Software Certification: We Need Product-Focused Approaches},
 editor =	 {C. Choppy and O. Sokolsky},
 booktitle = {Monterey Workshop 2008}, 
 series = {{LNCS}}, 
 volume = {6028}, 
 pages = {250--274}, 
 year = {2010},
 location = {Monterey, CA, USA},
 publisher = {Springer}
 }

Mark Lawford