Worldwide acceptance of UK quality standards is needed to increase
confidence in safety-critical defence systems. So says BCS
president David Hartley in an appeal to defence chiefs, writes
John Kavanagh.
In a letter prepared by the society's Safety-Critical Systems
Task Force to Robert Walmsley, head of defence procurement, and
Bruce George, chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, Hartley
says the Ministry of Defence has "led the field" by producing the
00-55 and 00-56 standards for testing safety-critical military
equipment and in its development and use of static analysis.
He points to the ministry's commissioning of two static analysis
aids - Malpas and Spade - which are now used as standard in
assessing certain military equipment in the UK.
But Hartley says the BCS, as the UK's professional institution
for software engineering, has concerns about the lack of adherence
to the standards even in the UK, let alone worldwide. And he uses
Computer Weekly's revelations about the Chinook helicopter crash on
the Mull of Kintyre, which killed senior defence staff, to support
the arguments.
"The BCS is concerned that while the UK has the benefit of using
standards like 00-55, the rest of the world does not, in general,
use static analysis," he says.
"The Computer Weekly report on the Chinook helicopter
crash on the Mull of Kintyre highlighted the fact that the software
for the helicopter was written in America and had not been
subjected to full static analysis.
"If the UK Defence Standard 00-55 had general acceptance in the
rest of the world, development and rigorous evaluation would be
more straightforward. However, this is unlikely, since even in the
UK the full rigour of 00-55 is rarely applied."
Hartley adds, "We would ask you to consider promoting a subset
of 00-55 as an internationally acceptable standard. We are well
aware that IEC 61508 [a new quality management standard] has now
been issued, but we consider that a specific international military
standard is required. Continued development and careful
promulgation of standards for rigorous evaluation are to be
encouraged."
He concludes, "We assure you of the BCS' commitment to
furthering the safe and prudent use of software-based systems and
it will assist you to improve the situation in any way it can."
You can read our indepth investigation into the crash of the
Chinook helicopter on the Mull of Kintyre
at