Application of total quality management techniques to safety analysis in software product development

The safety level of any system may be defined as the probability that no ca tastrophic accident is expected to occur during system operation, for a spe cified period of time. The purpose of software safety analysis is to reduce system risk. due to software malfunctions, to an acceptable level. Convent ional software safety analysis techniques are reactive in orientation. They are intended to identify software faults as part of a post-programming eva luation procedure. A more cost-effective approach would be to avoid introdu cing the faults into the computer code. This paper discusses the ongoing es tablishment of a development methodology that would incorporate this proact ive approach to software safety analysis, by applying the concepts of total quality management. This research provides a linkage of software engineeri ng to such classical industrial engineering activities as safety analysis a nd quality control.