Validating Effectiveness of Compliance Evaluation in Safety-Critical Process Assessment

Safety is a growing concern in systems containing software. Process assessments are used to ensure quality of the development processes for safety-critical systems. Regulators of the nuclear power industry have increased requirements for the development processes. Now, process assessments are integrated in the qualification of the systems and are expected to provide information not only based on the assessment model but also about the domain specific requirements. Compliance evaluation utilizes assessment findings to create evidence of the relevant domain specific requirements. This study aims at validating the results of compliance evaluation by analyzing assessment findings and their use in the context of a safety-critical domain. The analysis is based on the use of binary relations. The results of this analysis indicate that process assessment findings are also relevant when evaluating compliance to other sets of requirements. The results can significantly support the trustworthiness of the process assessment method and ensure effective use of process assessments.