[MA] ================================================ AMAST Links 02 05

                SVRC Computer System Hazard Analysis
           University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

   The full version of this announcement is available at URL:
   http://www.cs.utwente.nl/data/amast/links/v02/i05/full/AC0205MA.txt
  A course in hazard analysis for software systems will be presented
by John McDermid, Tim Kelly, Mark Nicholson and David Pumfrey from 
the High Integrity Systems Engineering Group, University of York, UK,
in Brisbane: 19-23 June 1995 at The University of Queensland, and in
Sydney: 26-30 June 1995 at the University of New South Wales.
  Registration fee: $2300 ($2100 for each of two or more participants 
from the same organisation) includes lunch, refreshments, course notes.  
  With the increasing use of computers in safety-critical applications
have come new problems of designing, implementing and certifying 
systems to meet the high standards necessary. The consequences of 
failure can be catastrophic - especially since many systems are 
employed in areas such as aviation, where a single accident can cause 
significant numbers of deaths or injuries. 
  Occasionally, faulty systems can be shown to be the most major cause 
of harm - for example, the deaths caused by faulty software in
Therac-25 radiation therapy machines. Other incidents, such as the 
problems experienced with the London Ambulance Service control system, 
suggest that the entire process of specifying, developing and employing
is capable of improvement.
  For most safety-critical systems, it is not sufficient to build a 
safe system; the system must be shown to be safe. This generally 
involves the preparation of some sort of safety case, and a process of 
certification with a licensing authority. The ability to assess the 
safety of a system, from initial identification of potential hazards 
through to detailed evaluation of the safety of an implementation, is 
an essential prerequisite for development and certification.
  This course will address the issues of hazard analysis and safety
assessment, presenting both `tried and tested' methods currently 
employed in a variety of industries, and novel concepts and techniques 
developed in the latest research. The course will take a `whole 
lifecycle' approach, emphasising the integration of safety assessment 
at all stages of system specification and implementation.