Satisfying SIL Requirements with Parasoft

Safety functions are increasingly being carried out by electrical, electronic or programmable electronic systems. These systems are typically complex, making it impossible to fully determine every failure mode or test all possible behavior.
While it’s challenging to predict safety performance, testing remains critical. The real obstacle is designing the system to prevent dangerous failures or control them when they arise.
Safety is a primary concern with today’s electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems, especially with new functionalities being released all the time.
Every function required to keep risk at an acceptable level is called a safety function. To achieve safety, functions must fulfill safety function and integrity requirements.
As a result, safe system development processes and providing evidence that all reasonable safety objectives are satisfied are critical initiatives.
Because complexity, software content and mechatronic implementation are increasing, so are risks of systematic and random hardware failures. IEC 61508 includes guidance to reduce risks to a tolerable level.
Using Parasoft, software development teams can meet requirements for particular SIL levels by automating best practices in software development and testing.

The below table shows how Parasoft C++test supports the software development lifecycle methods required for the safety functions to achieve a given SIL for a few C++test functionalities covering coding standards compliance (static code analysis).
For the complete list which includes static data and execution flow analysis, peer code review and unit testing, download
the whitepaper.
The following markers are used in the tables presented below to indicate:
R – functionalities matching methods recommended by the IEC 61508 standard
HR – functionalities matching methods highly recommended by the IEC 61508 standard
C++test functionality descriptions contain a reference to the appropriate techniques/measures as defined by the IEC 61508-3, Annex A, for example (Table A.3:1) references IEC 61508-3, Table A.3, Technique 1.

CODING STANDARDS COMPLIANCE – STATIC CODE ANALYSIS

C++test functionality	SIL
C++test functionality	1	2	3	4
Coding standards compliance module – general
Using C++test as a static analysis tool for C programming language (Table A.3: 1)	HR	HR	HR	HR
Enforcement of specific coding standards (Table A.4: 5)	R	HR	HR	HR
Using static analysis (Table A.9: 3)	R	HR	HR	HR
Analysis types
Using code metrics (e.g. function size, function parameter counts, etc.) to enforce structured programming (Table A.4: 6)	HR	HR	HR	HR
Enforcement of industry-recognized coding standards rule sets, such as MISRA C/C++, JSF, HIS source code metrics, etc. (Table B.1: 1)	HR	HR	HR	HR
Enforcement of specific coding conventions (Table B.1: 1)	HR	HR	HR	HR

*Note: The complete information presented in the whitepaper is intended to briefly introduce C++test usage in the SIL-related verification and testing process. Refer to the standard and consult functional safety experts for clarification of any requirements defined by the IEC 61508 standard.

Whitepaper: Satisfying SIL Requirements with Parasoft – Increase Functional Safety of E/E/PE Safety-Related Systems

Meeting requirements for particular SIL levels as defined by the IEC 61508 standard is no easy feat for software developers. Parasoft can help with that.

Download the whitepaper to understand how Parasoft can be used to fully or partially satisfy software development process requirements for particular SIL levels within the IEC 61508 standard.

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