ISVV and RAMS at Critical Software S.A.


Software plays an increasing and central role in Safety-Critical systems. A level of trust is placed on such software. The degree of trust depends on the magnitude and impact of failures that could occur if the software enters a faulty state.

With Software making, the basis of establishing this trust depends on many elements of evidence derived from the development and verification of the software. The evidence must be recorded checked, catalogued and rechecked.

Independent validation and verification can significantly augment the level of trust that software performs correctly because the ISVV discipline approaches testing from a different point of view than that of software development. The ISVV team performs its responsibility in the following ways:

  • Probes and pushes software to find where it might fail. (The development group often tests to confirm that software works as expected, i.e. functional testing)
  • Executes its tasks starting from a system point of view. (The development group often concentrates primarily on software.)
  • Analyzes the development methodologies.
  • Works in a documented, thorough and rigorous manner. (Being independent from the software development company, the ISVV team can afford to review thorough and rigorously the work products from the complete software life cycle.)
Critical Software (CSW), backed by more than 10 years of R&D in dependability evaluation, performs a variety of rigorous testing, analysis, verification and validation of real-time components (Software, Hardware and Systems).The same processes and evaluation techniques being used by CSW are now applied to ISVV.

Critical Software has been operating in the space sector since 1999. Our first customer was NASA's, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, followed by Eumetsat in 2000 and ESA in 2001. At the moment, Critical is working as a prime or subcontractor with a wide range of European Space companies, such as Astrium, Alcatel, DNV, EADS, GMV, Scysis, Softwcare, VCS, Vega, among many others.

Any organization that is developing or purchasing critical software should arrange for ISVV of that software. When performed properly, ISVV is not only cost effective in relation to an overall project, but if the software being developed is critical, the ISVV activity can greatly enhance success.