Safety Case Workshop

Authors

  • John Frost NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel
  • John McDermid University of York
  • Dave West SAIC
  • Don Swallom U.S. Army AMCOM
  • Barry Hendrix Northrop Grumman
  • Homayoon Dezfuli NASA
  • Robert Schmedake Boeing
  • Tom Delong APT

Keywords:

safety case, workshop, safety assurance, safety process

Abstract

In January 2013, a two-day Safety Case Workshop was conducted in Huntsville, Alabama under the sponsorship of the SAE International G-48 System Safety Committee and A-P-T Research, Inc. (APT). Attendees from industry, government and academia participated, with several making formal presentations on various safety methods. Industry focus is turning to international pursuits, which involve a broader understanding of different approaches to ensuring safety. The United States has typically used a process-based approach in managing system safety programs, but there is a current movement to use the evidence-based Safety Case approach to validate the safety of systems. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants reached the consensus view that the Safety Case approach merits being accepted among the best world-wide system safety practices.

Author Biographies

John Frost, NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel

John Frost, moderator, is a current NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel member who owns a successful safety consulting company. He is a Senior member of the International System Safety Society (ISSS), a professional member of the American Society of Safety Engineers and active in various system safety organizations and initiatives, including G-48. He is the former chief of safety for U.S. Army AMCOM, chaired the Army’s Ignition Safety Review Board and served as an Army Explosive Hazard Classification authority.

John McDermid, University of York

John McDermid, OBE FREng, is professor of software engineering at the University of York, U.K. and was head of the Computer Science Department from 2006 to 2012. He set up the High Integrity Systems Engineering research group, and was instrumental in developing techniques for producing safety arguments and safety cases that are now used worldwide. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Dave West, SAIC

Dave West, CSP, PE, CHMM, Fellow, is senior director and chief safety engineer of a 1,000-employee operation of SAIC, and is current chairman of the SAE International G-48 System Safety Committee. He is a former president of the ISSS Tennessee Valley Chapter, and has more than 25 years of experience performing safety work for Army aviation and weapon systems, chemical demilitarization, spaceflight programs, chemical plants, and nuclear facilities.

Don Swallom, U.S. Army AMCOM

Don Swallom is a safety engineer for the U.S. Army AMCOM and a Fellow member of ISSS. He is a former president of the Tennessee Valley Chapter, former pilot, staff officer and developmental engineer in the U.S. Air Force, and former chief of safety for the Arnold Engineering Development Center.

Barry Hendrix, Northrop Grumman

Barry Hendrix is a Lockheed Martin Technical Fellow Emeritus for aviation safety and airworthiness and has more than 40 years of experience on various weapon systems. He is the IBCS System Safety Lead for Northrop Grumman and served 10 years in the U.S. Navy aboard aircraft carriers as an aviation fire control system specialist on fighter and attack aircraft.

Homayoon Dezfuli, NASA

Homayoon Dezfuli, Ph.D., is a NASA system safety technical fellow and the manager of system safety in the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters. He led development of and co-authored several NASA procedures guides and handbooks, devised a safety goal implementation framework that has helped shape the NASA safety goal policy for human space flight, and is leading the development of the NASA System Safety and Mission Success Standard.

Robert Schmedake, Boeing

Robert Schmedake is a Boeing Technical Fellow, with more than 25 years of experience in system safety engineering. He is a Fellow member and current president of the ISSS, secretary of the G-48, U.S. co-chair of the S5000F Committee and a member of the joint Aerospace Industries of America & Aerospace and Defense Industries of Europe Integrated Logistic Support Specification Council. He served in the U.S. military from 1986 to 2012.

Tom Delong, APT

Tom Delong is the former lead systems safety engineer for SMDC, and has more than 35 years of safety experience. He chaired several missile anomaly investigations during a LAW alternative source selection and managed SETA contract and Range Safety Analysis contract at SMDC. He is lead instructor for APT’s system safety training program, which provides instruction to more than 100 professionals annually.

References

McDermid, John. “Safety Cases: Purpose, Process and Prospects,” Safety Case Workshop, January 14-15, 2014.

West, Dave. “The ‘ANSI’ Process for System Safety Assurance,” Safety Case Workshop, January 14-15, 2014.

ANSI/GEIA-STD-0010-2009, “Standard Best Practices for System Safety Program Development and Execution,”

February 12, 2009.

Swallom, Don. “The MIL-STD Process,” Safety Case Workshop, January 14-15, 2014.

MIL-STD-882E, “Department of Defense Standard Practice System Safety,” May 11, 2012.

Hendrix, Barry. “SAE ARP 4761 Process,” Safety Case Workshop, January 14-15, 2014.

SAE ARP 4761, “Guidelines and Methods for Conducting the Safety Assessment Process on Civil Airborne Systems

and Equipment,” December 1, 1996.

IEEE 12207, “Standard for Information Technology – Software Life Cycle Processes,” May 1998.

DO-178B, “Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification,” December 1, 1992.

IEEE STD 1228. “IEEE Standard for Software Safety Plans,” March 17, 1994.

Dezfuli, Homayoon. “Application of ‘Safety Case’ at NASA,” Safety Case Workshop, January 14-15, 2014.

Schmedake, Robert. “Safety Case and Software Development,” Safety Case Workshop, January 14-15, 2014.

Delong, Tom. “Define & Compare Flowcharts of Each Method,” Safety Case Workshop, January 14-15, 2014.

Safety Case Workshop

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Published

2014-06-01

How to Cite

Frost, J., McDermid, J., West, D., Swallom, D., Hendrix, B., Dezfuli, H., Schmedake, R., & Delong, T. (2014). Safety Case Workshop. Journal of System Safety, 50(2), 31–38. Retrieved from https://jsystemsafety.com/index.php/jss/article/view/228

Issue

Vol. 50 No. 2 (2014): Selling the Need for Safety

Section

Articles

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