An Approach to Support the Specification of Agile Artifacts in the Development of Safety-Critical Systems

[Context Motivation] Providing a correct, complete, and unambiguous requirements specification is still one of the biggest challenges in software engineering. In the case of safety critical systems, this challenge is even greater, since misinterpretations can lead to catastrophic damages to humans and to the environment. Agile development proposes minimizing the challenges in requirements specifications through short iterations, quick feedback, and active stakeholders. However, in safety-critical systems development, there is a gap (either geographical, cultural, educational, or temporal) between safety engineers and developers. [Question Problem] Therefore, it is not possible to be assured by agile development teams that safety aspects are well understood by developers, and, if the latter are aware of the criticality of the problem, that they can implement them accordingly. [Principal Ideas Results] The proposed research aims to provide adequate support for more accurate specification of agile development artifacts in the development of safety-critical systems. In this regard, the first contribution of this research aims at defining an Agile Safety Process, whose purpose is to identify which artifacts or parts thereof are enough to specify failure detection and containment, as well as measures for taking the system to a safe state. The second contribution aims at providing a semi-automated methodology for supporting the specification of agile artifacts, taking into account safety aspects. As a consequence, this research will have a significant impact in terms of improving the creation of evidences to be submitted for certification in terms of timing and accuracy.