Using codebeamer to Achieve IEC 61508 Compliance Using codebeamer to achieve IEC 61508 compliance 1
Using codebeamer to achieve IEC 61508 compliance Using a smart, integrated, cross-functional platform to manage the development processes of safety-critical systems, you can simply achieve and prove compliance with increasingly important safety standards such as IEC 61508. With its integrated approach and advanced feature set, codebeamer ALM is a cost-effective solution to meet the requirements set forth by IEC 61508, giving you a competitive advantage. codebeamer ALM has been awarded a Trusted Tool certification by the internationally recognized testing body TÜV Nord. This certification reassures users working on safety-critical products that codebeamer ALM is an adequate solution to support development in accordance with the requirements of IEC 61508 and ISO 26262. This compliance paper aims to help you understand the requirements of IEC 61058, and demonstrates the use of appropriate codebeamer features to achieve compliance with this standard, thus ensuring product safety and increasing system reliability. Industries developing systems or equipment whose failure or malfunction could result in death or injury to people, the loss or damage to the equipment itself, or severe environmental harm are referred to as safety-critical industries. To manage and mitigate risks in these industries, several methods and tools of safety engineering are used. With the growing complexity of systems and equipment, covering these safety measures increasingly requires the use of computerbased or programmable electronic systems. To ensure the safety and reliability of these safety systems, various standards stipulating the safety requirements have been developed. By achieving compliance with these standards, companies developing safety-critical systems can make sure their end products are as reliable and safe to use as reasonably possible. Complying with such standards is greatly facilitated by the use of smart tools that offer features supporting processes, collaboration, release and knowledge management. codebeamer is an adaptable and configurable enterprise Application Lifecycle Management platform that coordinates and manages all activities and artifacts associated with developing software as part of an embedded product or as a standalone application.
The International Electrotechnical Commission standard IEC 61508 is the international standard for Electrical/Electronic/Programmable Electronic Safetyrelated Systems (E/E/PES). It is a set of basic functional safety requirements applicable to various industries. This general standard spans the entire safety lifecycle (analysis, realization, operation) and has been adapted to several industries, resulting in the creation of different sector-specific standards: IEC 61508: An overview Automotive software: ISO 26262 Rail software: IEC 62279 Process industry / manufacturing processes: IEC 61511 Nuclear power plants: IEC 61513 Machinery system design: IEC 62061 The standard consists of 7 parts detailing the requirements, guidelines and examples to achieving compliance with IEC 61508. The main topic of this paper, requirements for safety-related software, is covered by IEC 61508 Part 3. IECTR 61508-0, Functional safety and IEC 61508 IEC 61508-1, General requirements IEC 61508-2, Requirements for E/E/PE safety-related systems IEC 61508-3, Software requirements IEC 61508-4, Definitions and abbreviations IEC 61508-5, Examples and methods for the determination of safety integrity levels IEC 61508-6, Guidelines on the application of IEC 61508-2 and IEC 61508-3 IEC 61508-7, Overview of techniques and measures For manufacturers, complying with safety standards such as IEC 61508 and its sub-standards means a competitive advantage over companies that are not able to thus demonstrate the safety of their products. What s more, compliance is a mandatory requirement for some safety-critical projects in order to be able to compete for these projects, companies need to prove that their processes comply with IEC 61508. To incorporate the requirements of IEC 61508 in your product development processes, an integrated approach and cross-functional tools are required. This paper explains how codebeamer ALM s features can help you achieve compliance with the software requirements set forth by IEC 61508 Part 3. 3 Using codebeamer to achieve IEC 61508 compliance
Risks in IEC 61508 Risk Management in codebeamer IEC 61508 employs a risk-based approach to safety-related system design, identifying two characteristic aspects of hazardous events: the frequency (or likelihood) of the risk, and the consequence (severity) in case the event defined by the risk occurs. Mitigating these risks (reducing the likelihood and/or the severity) to a tolerable level is the main objective of the safety lifecycles governed by the standard. The safety lifecycle set out by the standard begins with hazard and risk analysis. Once the likelihood and the consequence factors of risks have been determined, the risks are added to the risk class matrix. In this matrix, four classes are defined, from unacceptable risks (I) to risks that are acceptable but may need to be monitored (IV). Safety integrity levels IEC 61508 defines 4 Safety Integrity Levels (SILs) of these risk assessment efforts, with each level representing a more stringent degree of safety regulations. These SILs define either a tolerable frequency of dangerous failure (for systems in continuous mode or those operating more than once a year), or an allowable probability that the system will not respond when needed (for systems in low demand mode, e.g. those that operate once a year at most). To fulfill the requirements of IEC 61508, a target SIL has to be set and achieved for all safety functions. The various features offered by codebeamer enable organizations to develop safety-related systems up to SIL3. Consequence Likelihood Catastrophic Critical Marginal Negligible Frequent I I I II Probable I I II III Occasional I II III III Remote II III III IV Improbable III III IV IV Incredible IV IV IV IV Risk Management in codebeamer
Software configuration safety requirements in IEC 61508 6.2.3 Software configuration management shall: Relevant codebeamer features & functions: 1. Apply administrative and technical controls throughout the software safety lifecycle, in order to manage software changes and thus ensure that the specified requirements for safety-related software continue to be satisfied; Requirements Management; Project Planner; MS Office Roundtrip; Trackers for Change Management; Advanced Workflows; Electronic Signatures 2. Guarantee that all necessary operations have been carried out to demonstrate that the required software systematic capability has been achieved; Requirements Management; Traceability Browser; QA & Testing 3. Maintain accurately and with unique identification all configuration items which are necessary to meet the safety integrity requirements of the E/E/PE safety-related system. Configuration items include at least the following: safety analysis and requirements; software specification and design documents; software source code modules; test plans and results; verification documents; pre-existing software elements and packages which are to be incorporated into the E/E/PE safety-related system; all tools and development environments which are used to create, test, or carry out any action on the software of the E/E/PE safety-related system; Wikis; Document Management; Reporting; Code Management (baselining with electronic signatures, link source code to trackers); QA & Testing; Requirements Reuse 4. Apply change-control procedures: to prevent unauthorized modifications; to document modification requests; to analyse the impact of a proposed modification, and to approve or reject the request; Change Management; Advanced Workflows; Baselines with Electronic Signatures; Complete Traceability; Document Management & Wikis; QA & Testing to document the details of, and the authorisation for, all approved modifications; to establish configuration baseline at appropriate points in the software development, and to document the (partial) integration testing of the baseline; to guarantee the composition of, and the building of, all software baselines (including the rebuilding of earlier baselines). 5. Ensure that appropriate methods are implemented to load valid software elements and data correctly into the run-time system; Staging & Test Server 6. Document the following information to permit a subsequent functional safety audit: configuration status, release status, the justification (taking account of the impact analysis) for and approval of all modifications, and the details of the modification; Wiki; Document Management and Reporting; Project Planner; Full Traceability (including artifact history) 7. Formally document the release of safety-related software. Master copies of the software and all associated documentation and version of data in service shall be kept to permit maintenance and modification throughout the operational lifetime of the released software. Complete Baselining ( snapshots of all artifacts); Project Planner Source: www.cechina.cn/eletter/standard/safety/iec61508-3.pdf
codebeamer ALM Platform to Support Compliance with IEC 61508 codebeamer is a complete, integrated end-to-end Application Lifecycle Management solution that covers all phases of the product development process. Rather than standalone silos, its modules dedicated to Requirements Management, Development, QA & Testing (as well as Demand Management and DevOps) are organically integrated and use a single repository. Thus, full traceability of all artifacts is ensured throughout the entire lifecycle. Functional Safety Features of codebeamer ALM Requirements & Risk Management End-to-end traceability due to complete integration Tracker (task), issue and change management Electronic signatures Role and group-based security Process enforcement & automated processes Advanced reporting Supports Waterfall, Hybrid, Agile and more Requirements Management Helping compliance with IEC 61508, codebeamer s Requirements Management module covers the planning, specification, validation, change management and reporting of requirements. It offers MS Office import and export (roundtrip) capabilities and further document management features; functionality to capture and manage requirements; collaboration through wikis, and flexible workflows and communication tools such as comments & notifications; full traceability of all artifacts (requirements can be linked to test cases); advanced task management; and baselining with electronic signatures. Capturing of requirements and linking to test cases works in a document-centric-style. Data and documents in trackers can be linked to releases, an important feature for safety-related requirements. Extensive documentation features along with requirements linked to test cases mean that complete traceability of all artifacts is ensured throughout the development process. Powerful and intuitive roundtrip functionality with MS Word and Excel Full traceability with all other project artifacts such as test cases Highly customizable data structure Flexible workflows Integrated task management with a Kanban board Baselining for requirements freeze and audits Multi-level requirements structures Multi-dimensional referencing Integrated wiki and document management for easier collaboration and integration of additional information Sets of different views and filters (e.g. Document View, Table View) Integrated with Demand Management codebeamer s Requirements Management feature set offers complete traceability and multi-dimensional referencing
QA & Test Management Thanks to full traceability ensured by our Traceability Browser, gaps in coverage may be easily identified. The test case library lets you save and reuse test cases and group these cases into test sets, letting you efficiently manage large numbers of test cases. Advanced test parametrization features helps you make the best use of your testing capacity. codebeamer s powerful filtering and reporting functionality enables you to maintain control over your QA & Testing processes. Full traceability to other project artifacts including requirements Test case libraries for test case reuse Intuitive structuring of test sets and test cases Ability to integrate other tools e.g. automated testing tools (Jenkins ) Test Coverage Browser to find gaps Traceability Browser with advanced filtering options for large amounts of data Multi-dimensional referencing Test Coverage Browser to find gaps & ensure complete coverage e-signatures may be required to enforce processes QA & Test Management functionality for integrated test management 7 Using codebeamer to achieve IEC 61508 compliance
Traceability & Software Development As mentioned in previous sections, codebeamer provides full end-to-end traceability of all artifacts, helping you make sure that all requirements are covered, and that the safety system being developed conforms with IEC 61508. Due to tight integration, traceability is extended to Git, Mercurial, and Subversion repositories so that they don t become gaps in your end-to-end lifecycle, helping you achieve a high level of consistency, transparency, and stability. Defects, change requests or tasks can be related to source code changes when committing source code into the repository. When a managed repository is used, codebeamer provides links to show the associations between a Task ID and SCM commits by default. This level of traceability can also be configured for external repositories. Issue relations can be enforced upon commit, so no uncontrolled changes occur on the software level, and the traceability between development processes is guaranteed. Deep integration with task management (including Kanban board) ensures the development process is effectively bound into the lifecycle. Versioning and baselining (with electronic signatures) serves to take snaphots of the current status of all artifacts & the code, helping you document releases as per the requirements of IEC 61508. Issue and Change Management Issues, bugs, risks, feature and change requests, tasks and other artifacts are all stored in trackers that can be interlinked. Dependencies are automatically tracked, and suspected links automatically displayed in the Traceability Browser. Thus, issues can be traced back to their sources, their coverage ensured, and the impact of changes can be assessed. You can also assign tasks (issues) and add comments to artifacts. Advanced wiki plugins let you create valuable reports about the performance of your development processes. Dependencies automatically tracked in the Traceability Browser to help impact analysis Advanced wiki plugins for reporting Collaboration features Strong support of Git, Mercurial and Subversion, with complete integration into the codebeamer lifecycle Efficient task management with multidimensional referencing and Kanban board Extensive support for all the requirements of Scrum teams Easy tracking of relations, dependencies, changes, user stories, requirements and tasks Efficient management of your Agile release trains Extensive filtering and workflow management Effective task management with fully customizable Kanban boards Organic integration of wiki into the development process Easy to use built-in WYSWYG editor (wiki) or in-place editing with MS Office Import/export from MS Office Using codebeamer to achieve IEC 61508 compliance 8
Traceability & Software Development Release Planner Document Management with complete change history
Project Planning, Management & Reporting codebeamer s Project Planner lets you set up a release / sprints tree that can also be filtered to display team commitment in order to facilitate performance evaluation. Issues and tasks, along with comments, can be easily accessed in the Planner, while linked user stories / requirements and tracker items (issues) are displayed in matching colors to provide a better overview of coverage. Sprint status, project activities and burndown charts are easily available, ensuring the development projects of safety-critical systems are completed not only in great quality, but also on time. Customizable wiki plugins facilitate documentation and reporting to meet the requirements of IEC 61508 by letting you set up custom reports. Project Planner with release tree and team commitment filters Linking user stories to requirements and tracker items in an easy-to-overview manner Various customizable tools and charts for performance measurement Collaboration The single-repository approach employed by codebeamer enables all team members to stay on top of the project s progress throughout the development lifecycle. Information shared as comments, in wikis, documents, or trackers is available to all stakeholders, while codebeamer s Customer Users also let you gather feedback from your clients. Workflows can be executed, tasks assigned and commitments filtered to check up on the progress made by each team member. Thus, collaboration is facilitated even in dispersed teams. The full history of changes to artifacts, and comments added is accessible and saved in versioning. Comments, wikis, trackers and document management features for enhanced communication Workflows, task assignment, commitment filtering Customer Users to gather feedback (with MS Office roundtrip) Full history of comments, changes etc. included in versioning Flexible wiki plugins to help reporting Project management & collaborative features Using codebeamer to achieve IEC 61508 compliance 10
Advanced Workflows Using advanced workflows further ensures efficient and traceable collaboration: workflows can be fully configured to automate various processes, such as task assignment, status transitions and custom e-mail notifications. In addition to actions triggered by status transitions, guards may also be configured to request user authentication/e-signature for these transitions. Thus, codebeamer lets you apply change-control procedures as required by IEC 61508. Advanced workflows for automation (status transitions, notifications, assignments) Automatic guards to request user authentication Baselines Document management 11 Using codebeamer to achieve IEC 61508 compliance
Conclusion With the growing complexity and increasingly stringent safety requirements governed by various standards, developing safety-critical products with minimum risks requires more and more effort from companies. The tools that have been widely considered sufficient to support such complex development processes are no longer suitable using MS Word to keep track of thousands of requirements is hard enough to begin with, let alone proving compliance with standards such as IEC 61508. Companies can reduce the effort needed to comply with these standards by replacing their development tools with integrated end-to-end platforms such as codebeamer, allowing collaboration, offering full traceability, process automatization, QA and test functionality, managed repositories, and advanced workflows among other valuable features. Achieve IEC 61508 compliance with codebeamer, a tightly integrated ALM solution that lets you develop safety-critical products up to SIL3 with minimum risk, faster, and in better quality. Resources: http://www.ibm.com/.../compliance-iec-61508-safety-standards-pdf.pdf http://www.win.tue.nl/~mvdbrand/courses/sse/1213/iec61508_overview.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iec_61508 https://www.scribd.com/doc/36394966/iec-61508-3 Using codebeamer to achieve IEC 61508 compliance 12