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Liability for Software in Safety-Critical Mechatronic Systems: An Industrial Questionnaire

Full text:  
Authors: Holger Kienle (former), Daniel Sundmark, Kristina Lundqvist, Andreas Johnsen
Source: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Software Engineering for Embedded Systems, Zurich, Switzerland
 

Abstract

There is very little research on how industry is dealing with the risk of legal liability when constructing safety- critical mechatronic systems that are also software intensive. In this paper we propose a case study approach with the goal to understand how liability concerns in this setting impact software development in industry. The approach takes into account that software development is embedded into a complex socio-technical context involving stakeholders from technical, managerial and legal backgrounds. We present first results of our case study from a questionnaire involving six companies that develop software- intensive, safety-critical systems in the vehicular and avionics domains. The results of the questionnaire shed light on current industrial practices and concerns. The results indicate that liability seems indeed a concern and that a more in-depth analysis of this topic would be desirable to better understand the strategies that are used by industry to address liability risks.
 

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{Kienle_2777:2012,
   author = {Holger Kienle and Daniel Sundmark and Kristina Lundqvist and Andreas Johnsen},
   title = {Liability for Software in Safety-Critical Mechatronic Systems: An Industrial Questionnaire},
   booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Software Engineering for Embedded Systems},
   month = {June},
   year = {2012},
   url = {http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/index.php?choice=publications&id=2777},
}

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