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Product-Line Verification of Safety-Critical Software
Point of Contact	Robyn Lutz rlutz@cs.iastate.edu
Dates	January 2007 - December 2009
Problem	Product-line engineering of NASA systems offers the opportunity for significant cost savings and increased quality control. However, with this opportunity come new verification challenges. The research proposed here will answer the questions: "How should we verify that delivered software conforms to the product-line requirements and architecture levied on it and how do we document that conformance?" "How should we verify that safety-critical software built using product-line assets is safe?" Solutions exist and have been applied successfully in industry, but need to be customized for NASA's unique needs. The tasks proposed here will tailor the solutions to NASA's verification needs.
Objective	The objectives are listed below. By February, 2007, a survey of product-line V&V techniques in current use in industry, ESA and NASA will be completed and evaluated. By June, 2007, available tool support for the verification process will be identified and, where possible, evaluated. By September, 2007, a draft will be produced for review of a candidate suite of product-line verification techniques appropriate for NASA Exploration software. By December, 2007, assemble and customize a candidate suite of product-line verification techniques appropriate for NASA Exploration software. These will be used and evaluated in FY08 in the pilot application described below and, if validated, will be proposed for V&V of future product-line systems. By March, 2008, deliver a report proposing a specific set of additional product-line verification techniques for safety-critical product-line components. By June, 2008, select the candidate software product line for application and evaluation of the verification techniques and assemble a list of needed documents, etc. to be acquired. By September, 2008, complete the domain engineering of the safety requirements for one of the candidate product-line subsystems for use in the next step. Deliver the results to the project for review. If the project has already performed this step, import and evaluate their specification of the product-line safety requirements. By December, 2008, perform a safety verification analysis of the candidate product-line subsystems and deliver the results to the project for feedback on the choice of verification techniques. By March, 2009, complete application of verification techniques to Product Line Subsystem #1. By June, 2009, complete application of verification techniques to Product Line Subsystem #2. By September, 2009, produce generalized data and examples from these applications that will be suitable for future training in the recommended product-line verification techniques. By December, 2009, deliver Final Report documenting and evaluating the candidate suite of verification techniques for checking compliance of delivered product-line software with the product-line constraints and safety constraints levied on all systems in the product line.
Results	Literature survey of available techniques (Manual).doc SAS_07_Exec_Brief_PL_Verif_Lutz.ppt Tool Support Survey for Product-Line Verification and Validation Techniques.doc SAS 2008 Executive Presentation-Product Line Verification of Safety-Critical Software.ppt SAS 2008 Technical Presentation - Product-Line Verification of Safety-Critical Software.ppt 3_Product_Line_Verification_Tools.pdf Enabling Verifiable Conformance for Product Lines.pdf Analysis of MRO Anomaly Reports to Support Verification of Grail Software.doc SAS 2009 Executive Presentation.ppt
Keywords	Product lines, verification, safety-critical software
Categories	Quality Control Quality Engineering Criticality Analysis Issue & Risk Tracking Process Improvement Reuse Analysis Static Analysis

Curator: Josh Stonestreet
NASA Official: Lisa Montgomery

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