Software Safety Principles Conclusions and References
Software Safety Principles Conclusions and References is the sixth and final blog post on Principles of Software Safety Assurance. In them, we look at the 4+1 principles that underlie all software safety standards. (The previous post in the series is here.)

Read on to Benefit From...

The conclusions of this paper are brief and readable, but very valuable. It's important for us - as professionals and team players - to be able to express these things to managers and other stakeholders clearly. Talking to non-specialists is something that most technical people could do better.

The references include links to the standards covered by the paper. Unsurprisingly, these are some of the most popular and widely used processes in software engineering. The other links take us to the key case studies that support the conclusions.

Content

We outline common software safety assurance principles that are evident in software safety standards and best practices. You can think of these guidelines as the unchanging foundation of any software safety argument because they hold true across projects and domains.

The principles serve as a guide for cross-sector certification and aid in maintaining comprehension of the “big picture” of software safety issues while evaluating and negotiating the specifics of individual standards.

Conclusion

These six blog posts have presented the 4+1 model of foundational principles of software safety assurance. The principles strongly connect to elements of current software safety assurance standards and they act as a common benchmark against which standards can be measured.

Through the examples provided, it's also clear that, although these concepts can be stated clearly, they haven't always been put into practice. There may still be difficulties with their application by current standards. Particularly, there is still a great deal of research and discussion going on about the management of confidence with respect to software safety assurance (Principle 4+1).

Standards and References

RTCA/EUROCAE, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification, DO-178C/ED-12C, 2011.

CENELEC, EN-50128:2011 - Railway applications - Communication, signaling and processing systems - Software for railway control and protection systems, 2011.

ISO-26262 Road vehicles – Functional safety, FDIS, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 2011

IEC-61508 – Functional Safety of Electrical / Electronic / Programmable Electronic Safety-Related Systems. International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), 1998

FDA, Examples of Reported Infusion Pump Problems, Accessed on 27 September 2012,

http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/GeneralHospitalDevicesandSupplies/InfusionPumps/ucm202496.htm

FDA, FDA Issues Statement on Baxter’s Recall of Colleague Infusion Pumps, Accessed on 27 September 2012, http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm210664.htm

FDA, Total Product Life Cycle: Infusion Pump - Premarket Notification 510(k) Submissions, Draft Guidance, April 23, 2010.

“Report on the Accident to Airbus A320-211 Aircraft in Warsaw on 14 September 1993”, Main Commission Aircraft Accident Investigation Warsaw, March 1994, http://www.rvs.unibielefeld.de/publications/Incidents/DOCS/ComAndRep/Warsaw/warsaw-report.html  Accessed on 1st October 2012.

JPL Special Review Board, "Report on the Loss of the Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 Missions", Jet Propulsion Laboratory”, March 2000.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau. In-Flight Upset Event 240Km North-West of Perth, WA, Boeing Company 777-2000, 9M-MRG. Aviation Occurrence Report 200503722, 2007.

H. Wolpe, General Accounting Office Report on Patriot Missile Software Problem, February 4, 1992, Accessed on 1st October 2012, Available at: http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/gao/im92026.htm

Y.C. Yeh, Triple-Triple Redundant 777 Primary Flight Computer, IEEE Aerospace Applications Conference pg 293-307, 1996.

D.M. Hunns and N. Wainwright, Software-based protection for Sizewell B: the regulator’s perspective. Nuclear Engineering International, September 1991.

R.D. Hawkins, T.P. Kelly, A Framework for Determining the Sufficiency of Software Safety Assurance. IET System Safety Conference, 2012.

SAE. ARP 4754 - Guidelines for Development of Civil Aircraft and Systems. 1996.

Software Safety Principles: End of the Series

This blog post series was derived from ‘The Principles of Software Safety Assurance’, by RD Hawkins, I Habli & TP Kelly, University of York. The original paper is available for free here. I was privileged to be taught safety engineering by Tim Kelly, and others, at the University of York. I am pleased to share their valuable work in a more accessible format.

Meet the Author

My name’s Simon Di Nucci. I’m a practicing system safety engineer, and I have been, for the last 25 years; I’ve worked in all kinds of domains, aircraft, ships, submarines, sensors, and command and control systems, and some work on rail air traffic management systems, and lots of software safety. So, I’ve done a lot of different things!

Principles of Software Safety Training

Learn more about this subject in my course 'Principles of Safe Software' here.

My course on Udemy, 'Principles of Software Safety Standards' is a cut-down version of the full Principles Course. Nevertheless, it still scores 4.42 out of 5.00 and attracts comments like:

- "It gives me an idea of standards as to how they are developed and the downward pyramid model of it." 4* Niveditha V.

- "This was really good course for starting the software safety standareds, comparing and reviewing strengths and weakness of them. Loved the how he try to fit each standared with4+1 principles. Highly recommend to anyone that want get into software safety." 4.5* Amila R.

- "The information provides a good overview. Perfect for someone like me who has worked with the standards but did not necessarily understand how the framework works." 5* Mahesh Koonath V.

- "Really good overview of key software standards and their strengths and weaknesses against the 4+1 Safety Principles." 4.5* Ann H.
#basicprinciplesofsafety #issafetyimportant #principlesforsoftwaredesign #principlesofsoftwareengineering #principlesofsoftwarevalidation #safeprinciplesexplained #safesystemprinciples #safetyassessmentprinciples #safetyprinciples #safetyprinciplesandpractices #softwareanalysisprinciples #softwaredesignprinciplesexamples #softwaredevelopmentprinciple #softwaredevelopmentprinciplesandpractices #softwareengineeringprinciplesarebasedon #softwareengineeringprinciplesppt #softwareprinciples #softwareprinciplesinsoftwareengineering #softwarequalityprinciples #softwaresafetycertification #softwaresafetydefinition #softwaresafetyengineering #softwaresafetyexamples #softwaresafetyprinciples #softwaresafetyrequirements #softwaresafetyrequirementsexample #softwaresafetystandards #softwaresafetytesting #softwaresystemsafety #whataresoftwaredesignprinciples
Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/2022/11/23/sw-safety-principles-conclusions-and-references/

Australian WHS Course
In this Australian WHS Course, we show you how to practically and pragmatically implement the essential elements of Australian Work Health and Safety Legislation. In particular, we look at the so-called 'upstream' WHS duties. These are the elements you need to safely introduce systems and services into the Australian market.

Lessons in This Course

A Guide to the Australian WHS Act

Image by Wendy Van Zyl, from Pexels

This Guide to the WHS Act covers many topics of interest to system safety and design safety specialists, this full-length video covers key sections (§) of the Act:

- § 3, Object ;

- § 4-8, Definitions;

- § 12A, Exclusions;

- § 18, Reasonably Practicable;

- § 19, Primary Duty of Care;

- § 22-26, Duties of Designers, Manufacturers, Importers, Suppliers & those who Install/Construct/Commission;

- § 27, Officers & Due Diligence;

- § 46-49, Consult, Cooperate & Coordinate;

- § 152, Function of the Regulator; and

- § 274-276, WHS Regulations and CoP.

The Consultation, Cooperation & Coordination Code of Practice

Photo by August de Richelieu from Pexels.com

In this 30-minute session, we look at the Consultation, Cooperation & Coordination Code of Practice (CC&C CoP). We cover the Commonwealth and Model versions of the CoP, appendices & a summary of detailed requirements; and further commentary. This CoP is one of the two that are generally applicable.

Topics:

- CC&C in the Federal or Commonwealth CoP;

- Extra CC&C in the Model CoP;

- (Watch out for Jurisdiction);

- Further commentary; and

- Where to get more information.

The Risk Management CoP

Photo by Marta Branco from Pexels

In this 40-minute session, we look at the Risk Management Code of Practice (CoP). We cover: who has WHS duties; the four-step process; keeping records, appendices & a summary of detailed requirements; and further commentary. This CoP is the other one of the two that are generally applicable.

Topics:

- Who has WHS duties;

- The four-step process;

- Keeping records, appendices & summary of detailed requirements;

- Further commentary; and

- Where to get more information.

Safe Design

Karolina Grabowska STAFFAGE from Pexels

Want some good guidance on Safe Design? In this 52-minute video from the Safety Artisan, you will find it. We take the official guidance from Safe Work Australia and provide a value-added commentary on it. The guidance integrates seamlessly with Australian law and regulations, but it is genuinely useful in any jurisdiction.

Topics:

- A safe design approach;

- Five principles of safe design;

- Ergonomics and good work design;

- Responsibility for safe design;

- Product lifecycle;

- Benefits of safe design;

- Legal obligations; and

- Our national approach.

How to Demonstrate SFARP

Photo by Sondre Dahl from Pexels.com

So our learning objectives for this session at the end of this session, you should understand the SFARP concept: what it’s all about. You should understand the variety of techniques that are available to you. Most importantly, you will be able to apply these techniques in the correct order, because that’s important in the real world.

Topics

- Introduction – Reasonably Practicable;

- How to SFARP with:

- Codes, Standards & Regulations; and

- Controls, or groups of controls.

- Some practical hints on good practice;

- Examples; and

- Source information.
#demonstrateSFARP #reasonablypracticable #reasonablypracticablecaselaw #reasonablypracticabledefinition #reasonablypracticablehealthandsafety #reasonablypracticablemeaning #reasonablypracticablewhs #sfairp #sfairphealthandsafety #SFARP #sfarpsafety #showSFARP #whatdoesreasonablypracticablemean #whatisthebesthealthandsafetycoursetodo #whatisthepurposeofwhs #whsclasses #Whscourse #whscourseonline #whscourses #whstrainingformanagers
Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/2022/07/06/australian-whs-course/

Comprehensive Project Safety Management Plans: A Guide
Comprehensive Project Safety Management Plans. Safety is a critical element in any large-scale project, especially in the context of defence and complex systems. One essential tool for managing safety is a Safety Management Plan (SMP). In this article, we’ll break down the process and structure of an effective SMP, highlighting its objectives, content, and how to ensure its successful implementation.

Comprehensive Project Safety Management Plans: Introduction

Definitions

A Safety Management Plan is defined as:

“A document that defines the strategy for addressing safety and documents the Safety Management System for a specific project.”UK MoD Defence Standard 00-56

In other words, an SMP serves as a structured approach to managing safety across a project’s lifecycle, ensuring that all risks are identified, analysed, and mitigated effectively.

Objectives

The core objectives of a Project Safety Management Plan are twofold:

- Ensuring Safety Performance: The plan guarantees that the system remains safe throughout its entire lifecycle.

- Maintaining Assurance: It provides the necessary information to demonstrate that safety objectives are being met continuously.

- Achieving these goals requires a coordinated, structured approach that integrates risk management and establishes clear safety requirements right from the start.

SMP in Practice: Contractor vs. Enterprise Project

Each organisation involved in the project—whether it’s the Enterprise Project or a contractor—must produce a distinct SMP that outlines their safety activities. Though separate, these plans should align with each other and the overall project goals. This integration is crucial as safety activities span system development, trials, and any necessary safety approvals.

The SMP discussed here focuses specifically on the Enterprise Project’s plan, which acts as the guiding document for all safety management activities.

Procedure and Methodology

Establishing the Safety Management Framework

The SMP outlines the strategy for ensuring safety and documents the Safety Management System for a particular project. It’s more than just a checklist—it’s a comprehensive program that captures safety timescales, milestones, and other relevant data.

Key areas to be addressed in an SMP include:

- General Equipment Safety: An overarching review of the equipment’s safety features.

- System-Specific Requirements: For example, airworthiness or ship-specific hazards.

- Occupational Safety: Encompassing manual handling, packaging, transport, and more.

- Operational Safety: Ensuring safe procedures during the use phase.

- Maintenance Safety: Guidelines for repair and maintenance activities.

- Training and Disposal: Safety considerations for personnel training and end-of-life disposal of the system.

Creating a Tailored Safety Strategy

No two projects are identical, and neither should their SMPs be. Each plan must be custom-designed to fit the specific project requirements, ensuring a safety strategy that is practical and achievable.

Structuring the SMP: Essential Elements

An effective SMP should contain the following sections:

- Outline Description: Clearly defines the equipment, its purpose, operational environment, and expected capabilities.

- Safety Management System: Details the system’s objectives, managerial tasks, and responsible organisations.

- Responsibilities and Resources: Identifies key personnel and defines their roles through a RACI chart (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed).

- Audit Arrangements: Outlines internal and independent audit processes.

- Requirements and Acceptance Criteria: Defines safety requirements, targets, and the standards by which success will be measured.

- Safety Case Scope and Strategy: Lays out the assessment strategy and techniques to control hazards.

- Safety Programme: A comprehensive work plan linked to the Through Life Management Plan.

An example template for structuring your SMP can be found in Annexe A. Refer to Annexe B for a sample RACI chart to guide accountability and communication.

Warnings and Potential Project Risks

The SMP is the linchpin of project safety management. If not accurately maintained, the project may face unforeseen delays, increased costs, or compromised safety performance.

Common Pitfalls:

- Inadequate Detail: Missing out on key safety activities can lead to delays and escalated costs.

- Outdated Information: Failing to keep the SMP updated can result in misalignment with the actual safety activities.

- Insufficient Review: Lack of endorsement by the Project Safety Committee (PSC) may mean the plan does not accurately reflect stakeholder responsibilities.

These risks underscore the importance of a thorough, continuously updated SMP.

Procedure Completion and Review

The Project Safety Committee (PSC) is responsible for drafting, endorsing, and reviewing the SMP, ensuring that safety requirements and acceptance criteria are clearly defined and agreed upon by all parties.

Timing:

- Initial Production: Start as early as the Concept stage.

- Ongoing Updates: Review and update the SMP regularly, especially during key project milestones.

The SMP should be a living document that evolves as new information arises or project requirements change.

Safety Planning: Required Inputs

This procedure for Safety Planning requires inputs from:

- Outputs from procedure SMP01 – Safety Initiation;

- Outputs from procedure SMP02 – Safety Committee.

These inputs should be integrated with other management plans throughout the acquisition cycle.

Outputs:

The SMP’s outputs should feed into several project documents, including:

- System Requirements Document: Capture specific safety needs.

- Customer Supplier Agreement: Document mutual agreements on safety deliverables.

- Through Life Management Plan: Align with long-term safety management.

- Business Case Submissions: Support safety-related elements in decision-making processes.

All meeting minutes should reflect decisions made regarding the SMP’s development and upkeep.

Conclusion

The Safety Management Plan is the cornerstone of safety assurance in complex projects. Properly implemented, it serves as a robust framework to manage safety risks, ensure compliance, and maintain confidence in the system’s safety performance throughout its lifecycle.

By following the structure and content outlined in this guide, project teams can create a comprehensive, effective SMP that aligns with the highest standards of safety management.d up-issue.

Safety Planning: Annexe A - Template for a Safety Management Plan

TITLE

Title of equipment or system to be procured with the Requirement reference number.

DESCRIPTION

A brief description of the project, including its purpose and the environment it is to operate in. The scope of the project and interfaces with other equipment are also to be identified.

INVOLVEMENT OF SPECIALIST SAFETY ADVISORS

List any specialist advisors who need to be involved in the program and send them a copy of this plan where required. Such advisers should include internal advisors, external regulators, or statutory bodies that provide advice.

PROJECT SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

A description of the Safety Management System within the Enterprise delivery team to include:

- The aims and objectives of the safety management system;

- Technical tasks to be undertaken and the organisation responsible for implementing them;

- Identification of project staff with responsibility for carrying out safety tasks. Include those who are to be issued with letters of delegation;

- Cross-reference to any relevant project safety documents or reports;

- A regime for internal or independent audits of the safety management system;

- Details of the project safety panel;

- Responsibilities, resources, and interfaces with Enterprise, contractor, and specialist advisors;

- Safety reviews, feedback, and reporting procedures;

- Transfer arrangements;

- Design changes;

- Contractor’s trials.

SAFETY REQUIREMENTS

- Safety requirements arising from legislation;

- Enterprise Certification requirements;

- Acceptance criteria;

- Safety requirements from the Requirement or;

- Safety targets;

- Safety-related standards to be applied, e.g. National Standards, Defence Standards, International Standards or overseas standards.

PROGRAMME OF WORK

Identify the tasks that will enable the safety requirements to be met and develop this into a schedule of work on a Gantt or PERT chart, linked to key stages in the Through Life Management Plan.

SAFETY CASE STRATEGY

This strategy should support the program of work above. It will give consideration to the types of analyses and testing to be carried out. It will define the scope of work of the safety case and the interfaces with associated equipment safety cases.

APPROVAL

This plan will be approved by a person with delegated authority.

DISTRIBUTION

Plan to be distributed to the management area with responsibility for in-service support. The plan will also be distributed to teams procuring equipment with which the project interfaces and or interacts.

Annexe B - RACI Chart example

The SMP should contain a RACI Chart to define which authority is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed for each of the activities in the Safety Programme. A simple example is given below:

ActivitySafety Delegation HolderProject Safety ManagerIndependent Safety AuditorContractor Project Safety EngineerEquipment UserSafety Case PreparationARIRISafety Case EndorsementAIRIIHazard Log AdministrationAI-R-Safety Requirements PreparationAR-RC

Key: R – Responsible; A – Accountable; C – Consulted; I - Informed

Acknowledgement of Copyright

In this article, I have used material from a UK Ministry of Defence guide, reproduced under the terms of the UK’s Open Government Licence.

Comprehensive Project Safety Management Plans: What are Your Questions?

Meet the Author

Learn safety engineering with me, an industry professional with 25 years of experience. I have:

•Worked on aircraft, ships, submarines, ATMS, trains, and software;

•Tiny programs to some of the biggest (Eurofighter, Future Submarine);

•In the UK and Australia, on US and European programs;

•Taught safety to hundreds of people in the classroom, and thousands online;

•Presented on safety topics at several international conferences.
#functionalsafetymanagementplanexample #gassafetymanagementplan #healthandsafetymanagementplandoc #healthandsafetymanagementplanexample #healthandsafetymanagementplantemplatenz #healthsafetymanagementplantemplate #ohssafetymanagementplan #safetymanagementplandefinition #safetymanagementplanexample #safetymanagementplanforconstruction #safetymanagementplaninmines #safetymanagementplantemplateqld #sitesafetymanagementplanexample #thelifesafetymanagementplanprovidesinformationandguidelinesforwhichofthefollowing #whatisthepurposeofasafetymanagementsystem
Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/2024/10/16/comprehensive-project-safety-management-plans/

Project Safety Initiation
In 'Project Safety Initiation' we look at what you need to do to get your safety project or program started.

Introduction

Definitions

A stakeholder is anyone who will be affected by the introduction of the system and who needs to be consulted or informed about the development and fielding of the system, and anyone who contributes to the ultimate acceptance of the project.

We will look at the RACI chart of stakeholders under a later SMP. Top Tip

Project Safety Initiation: Objectives

This procedure describes the start-up of safety management activities on a project. It identifies safety stakeholders and legislative and other standards that need to be satisfied. The procedure also creates the key elements of the safety management organization for the project.

In normal circumstances, this procedure would be applied at the outset of a project, early in the Concept phase. However, it can be applied at any point of the life cycle where it is necessary to initiate a formal safety management process on an existing system. The procedure may also be re-applied at significant points in the life cycle (e.g. after Full Business Case approval), to review and update the project safety arrangements and ensure that they continue to be appropriate.

Remember that a Project delivers on a specific:a) Outcome, result or benefits, e.g. meeting requirements;b) Schedule; andc) Quality criteria, e.g. needed to realise benefits.Top Tip

Comprehensive Guide to Safety Management Procedure Initiation

Safety management is critical to any project, especially those involving complex systems with safety and environmental implications. This procedure outlines the early-stage safety processes that should be followed, assuming that the Program Director has already been appointed and safety responsibilities have been delegated to a competent team member within the delivery team. The goal of safety initiation is to ensure that safety management starts on a firm basis, identifying crucial stakeholders, regulatory authorities, and internal teams responsible for safety and environmental protection.

In this article, we will provide an in-depth understanding of the safety initiation process, stakeholder identification, project safety organization creation, compliance considerations, and necessary documentation.

Purpose of Safety Initiation

The primary objective of safety initiation is to commence the safety management process by:

- Identifying stakeholders, regulators, and approval authorities.

- Appointing a Project Safety Manager (PSM) and, if required, an Independent Safety Auditor (ISA).

- Forming the Project Safety Committee (PSC).

- Ensuring compliance with safety and environmental regulations and creating a responsible, accountable, consulted, informed (RACI) chart.

This procedure helps mitigate risks to project timelines, cost, and overall safety by ensuring safety requirements are identified and met early in the project lifecycle.

All applicable factors need to be lined up to ensure the success of a safety project or program.Top Tip

Project Safety Initiation: How It's Done

1. Stakeholder Identification in Safety Initiation

The identification of stakeholders is crucial. Stakeholders include any individuals or groups impacted by the project’s development or operation, as well as those responsible for the project's approval and compliance. This may include industry professionals, regulatory bodies, and environmental authorities. Here’s how to systematically identify and involve relevant stakeholders:

Who Are the Stakeholders?

A stakeholder is defined as anyone affected by the system or involved in its acceptance, including:

- Individuals who are responsible for safety at any stage of the project.

- Groups or individuals with safety information or requirements relevant to the project.

- Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) with specialized knowledge critical to project safety.

Consulting Key Stakeholders

At a minimum, the following must be consulted:

- Project Sponsor (e.g., Director of the End Users’ Business Unit).

- Equipment Users who will be directly affected.

- Director Technical responsible for the technical aspects of the project.

- Safety & Environmental Protection Group tasked with compliance.

- Other Delivery Teams involved with subsystems or associated projects.

After identifying stakeholders, record their involvement and details in Form SMP01/F/02 - Register of Stakeholder Requirements and Information. External stakeholders such as other government departments or industry experts should also be logged into the communication plan. For complex projects, develop a communication plan outlining stakeholder contact details, responsibilities, and relevant security considerations.

It may be helpful to rename the project communication plan the Project Stakeholder Management Plan - what do you need from stakeholders for your Project to succeed?Top Tip

2. Ensuring Compliance with Safety Regulations

Compliance with safety and environmental regulations is a critical responsibility of the Delivery Team. The following methods ensure compliance across various safety aspects:

Key Compliance Strategies:

- System Specifications: Delivery Teams develop specifications to meet user requirements, ensuring safety and environmental standards are incorporated.

- Through Life Management Plan (TLMP): This plan outlines the long-term impact of safety and environmental legislation on equipment.

- Enterprise Guidance: Use internal guidelines when creating contracts to include safety and environmental performance targets.

Sources for Regulatory and Legislative Information:

To maintain compliance with safety and environmental legislation, teams can access a wide range of resources, including:

- Legislative registers held by the program teams.

- Defense Regulator intranet pages.

- Health & Safety Executive publications and other professional societies.

- Suppliers, contractors, and consultants with expertise in safety and environmental law.

The Delivery Team must identify applicable legislation at the start of the project and continuously update a legislative register as part of the Safety Case.

For more information on this vital task, see the post on System Requirements Hazard Analysis here.Top Tip

3. Creating a Project Safety Organization

Establishing a robust safety management structure is essential to ensure compliance with safety standards and regulations. The Safety Management Plan (SMP) will eventually document the project’s entire safety organization, but before that, some key safety roles need to be defined.

Steps to Set Up Project Safety Organization:

Develop a Project Safety RACI Chart: This chart defines who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed at different stages of the safety process.

Appoint a Competent Project Safety Manager (PSM): This individual is responsible for overseeing safety management throughout the project.

Appoint an Independent Safety Auditor (ISA): For complex or high-risk projects, appointing an ISA is advisable. The ISA ensures that safety audits are conducted independently.

Form a Project Safety Committee (PSC): This group will be responsible for monitoring and governing safety issues within the project.

3. Ensuring Compliance with Safety Regulations

Compliance with safety and environmental regulations is a critical responsibility of the Delivery Team. The following methods ensure compliance across various safety aspects:

Key Compliance Strategies:

- System Specifications: Delivery Teams develop specifications to meet user requirements, ensuring safety and environmental standards are incorporated.

- Through Life Management Plan (TLMP): This plan outlines the long-term impact of safety and environmental legislation on equipment.

- Enterprise Guidance: Use internal guidelines when creating contracts to include safety and environmental performance targets.

Sources for Regulatory and Legislative Information:

To maintain compliance with safety and environmental legislation, teams can access a wide range of resources, including:

- Legislative registers held by the program teams.

- Defense Regulator intranet pages.

- Health & Safety Executive publications and other professional societies.

- Suppliers, contractors, and consultants with expertise in safety and environmental law.

The Delivery Team must identify applicable legislation at the start of the project and continuously update a legislative register as part of the Safety Case.

4. Safety Documentation and Records

Documenting safety processes ensures accountability and maintains a clear safety management trail. These records feed into critical project documentation, including:

- System Specification: Defines specific safety requirements.

- Customer-Supplier Agreement: Documents agreements on safety information.

- Through Life Management Plan (TLMP): Outlines the ongoing safety and environmental impact.

- Safety Elements in Business Case Submissions: Ensures all safety-related information is considered in formal project submissions.

Outputs to Record:

Appointed PSM and ISA, if appropriate;

SMP01_F_01 - Safety Operating Environment QuestionnaireDownload

SMP01_F_02 - Register of Stakeholder Requirements and InformationDownload

SMP01_F_03 - Register of Safety Legislation and Other Significant RequirementsDownload

Proper documentation supports future audits, stakeholder engagement, and compliance efforts. Competent to perform the required responsibilities.

5. Importance of Competence in Safety Management

Competence in safety management is key to project success. The competence of the PSM and ISA must be demonstrated and documented to assure that they can effectively discharge their safety responsibilities.

Consequences of Incompetence or Delays:

Failure to appoint competent individuals or delay the initiation of safety management procedures can lead to:

- Increased risk to project timelines and costs.

- Delayed engagement with stakeholders.

- Overlooked safety and environmental requirements.

Conclusion: Importance of Early Safety Management Initiation

Initiating a structured safety management process at the early stages of a project is crucial for ensuring compliance with safety and environmental standards. By identifying stakeholders, setting up a robust safety organization, ensuring compliance, and maintaining accurate documentation, the project minimizes risks, avoids delays, and maintains clear communication with all involved parties.

Project Safety Initiation: Timing

Initial Application

In an acquisition program, the procedure should be carried out early in the Concept phase.  Stakeholders, system boundaries, supporting systems/arrangements, and acceptance authorities need to be identified as early as possible to support the subsequent Preliminary Hazard Identification activity (Procedure SMP04 – Preliminary Hazard Identification) and the preparation of the SMP.

The procedure can be applied at any point of the life cycle where it is necessary to initiate a formal safety management process.

Review

The registers of stakeholders and requirements should be reviewed and updated after the Outline Business Case and Full Business Case as part of the review and update of the SMP.

New Safety Managers could also use this as a take-over checklist, to make sure all necessary decisions have been made and clearly documented.Top Tip

Acknowledgment of Copyright

In this article, I have used some material from a UK Ministry of Defence guide, reproduced under the terms of the UK’s Open Government Licence.

Meet the Author

Learn safety engineering with me, an industry professional with 25 years of experience, I have:

•Worked on aircraft, ships, submarines, ATMS, trains, and software;

•Tiny programs to some of the biggest (Eurofighter, Future Submarine);

•In the UK and Australia, on US and European programs;

•Taught safety to hundreds of people in the classroom, and thousands online;

•Presented on safety topics at several international conferences.
#EnvironmentalSafetyRegulations #IndependentSafetyAuditor(ISA) #LegislativeComplianceinProjects #projectandstakeholdermanagement #projectcharterstakeholderlistexample #projectgovernancestakeholdermanagement #projectmanagementstakeholderlist #ProjectSafetyOrganization #projectstakeholderanalysisexample #projectstakeholdercommunicationplan #projectstakeholderlisttemplate #projectstakeholdermanagementbestpractices #projectstakeholderregisterexample #SafetyCompliance #SafetyDocumentation #SafetyManagementPlan(SMP) #SafetyManagementProcess #SafetyRACIChart #StakeholderIdentification #whoisprojectstakeholder
Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/2024/10/02/project-safety-initiation/

Understanding Your Risk Assessment Standard
When Understanding Your Risk Assessment Standard, we need to know a few things. The standard is the thing that we're going to use to achieve things - the tool. And that's important because tools designed to do certain things usually perform well. But they don’t always perform well on other things. So we will ask, ‘Are we doing the right thing?’ And ‘Are we doing it right?’

This post is part of a series:

- Intro to System Safety Risk Assessment

- Start of System Safety Risk Assessment

- Hazard & Risk Basics (SSRAP Module 1)

- System safety risk analysis (SSRAP Module 2)

Video Highlights

Understanding Your Standard: Highlights

Transcript

What and Why?

So, what will we do and why are we doing it? First, the use of safety standards is very common for many reasons. It helps us to have confidence that what we're doing is good enough. We've met a standard of performance in the absolute sense. It helps us to say, ‘We've achieved standardization or commonality in what we're doing’.

We can also use it to help us achieve a compromise. That can be a compromise across different stakeholders or different organizations. Standardization gives us some of the other benefits as well. If we're all doing the same thing rather than we're all doing different things, it makes it easier to train staff. This is one example of how a standard helps.

However, we need to understand this tool that we're going to use. What it does, what it's designed to do, and what it is not designed to do. That's important for any standard or any tool. In safety, it's particularly important because safety is, in many respects, an intangible. This is because we're always looking to prevent a future problem from occurring. In the present, it's a little bit abstract. It's a bit intangible. So, we need to make sure that conceptually what we're doing makes sense and it's coherent. That it works together. If we look at those five bullet points there, we need to understand the concept of each standard. We need to understand the basis of each one.

They’re not all based on the same concept. Thus, some of them are contradictory or incompatible. We need to understand the design of the standard. What the standard does, what the aim of the standard is, and why it came into existence. And who brought it into existence. To do what for whom - who's the ultimate customer here?

For risk analysis standards, we need to understand what kind of risks they address. Because the way you treat a financial risk might be very different from a safety risk. In the world of finance, you might have a portfolio of products, like loans. These products might have some risks associated with them. One or two loans might go bad, and you might lose money on those. But as long as the whole portfolio is making money, that might be acceptable to you. You might say, ‘I'm not worried about that 10% of my loans have gone south and all gone wrong. I'm still making plenty of profit out of the other 90%.’ It doesn't work that way with safety. You can't say ‘It's OK that I've killed a few people over here because all this a lot over here are still alive!’. It doesn't work like that!

Also, what kind of evidence does the standard produce? Because in safety, we are very often working in a legal framework that requires us to do certain things. It requires us to achieve a certain level of safety and prove that we have done so. So, we need certain kinds of evidence. In different jurisdictions and different industries, some evidence is acceptable. Some are not. You need to know which is for your area. And then finally, let's think about the pros and cons of the standard. What does it do well? And what does it do not so well?

System Safety Pedigree

We're going to look at a standard called Military Standard 882E. This standard was first developed several decades ago. It was created by the US government and military to help them bring into service complex, cutting-edge military equipment. Equipment that was always on the cutting edge. That pushes the limits of what you can achieve in performance.

That’s a lot of complexity. Lots of critical weapon systems, and so forth. So they needed something that could cope with all that complexity. It's a system safety engineering standard. It's used by engineers, but also by many other specialists. As I said, it's got a background in military systems. These days, you find these principles used pretty much everywhere. So, all the approaches to System Safety that 882 introduced are in other standards. They are also in other countries.

It addresses risks to people, equipment, and the environment, as we heard earlier. And because it's an American standard, it's about system safety. It's very much about identifying requirements. What do we need to happen to get safety? To do that, it produces lots of requirements. It performs analyses of all those requirements and generates further requirements. And it produces requirements for test evidence. We then need to fulfill these requirements. It's got several important advantages and disadvantages. We're going to discuss these in the next few slides...

This is Module 3 of SSRAP

'Understanding Your Risk Assessment Standard' is Module 3 of the System Safety Risk Assessment Program (SSRAP) Course. Risk Analysis Programs – Design a System Safety Program for any system in any application.

The full course comprises 15 lessons and 1.5 hours of video content, plus resources. It's on pre-sale at HALF PRICE until September 1st, 2024. Check out all the free preview videos here and order using the coupon “Pre-order-Half-Price-SSRAP”. But don't leave it too long because there are only 100 half-price courses available!

Meet the Author

Learn safety engineering with me, an industry professional with 25 years of experience. I have:

•Worked on aircraft, ships, submarines, ATMS, trains, and software;

•Tiny programs to some of the biggest (Eurofighter, Future Submarine);

•In the UK and Australia, on US and European programs;

•Taught safety to hundreds of people in the classroom, and thousands online;

•Presented on safety topics at several international conferences.
#Achievingcomprehensivesystemsafetyassurance #Benefitsofusingsafetystandardsforcomplexsystems #Bestpracticesformanagingsafetyrisks #Bestsystemsafetyengineeringstandard #Comprehensivesafetyanalysistoolsandsoftware #Developinganeffectivesafetyprogram #Effectivehazardidentificationandanalysismethods #Ensuringhighperformancesystemsafety #Howtoimplementsystemsafetyriskanalysisprograms #Implementingengineeringsafetystandards #Legalsafetycompliancetoolsandresources #Meetingcomplexsystemsafetyrequirements #Meetingsafetyrequirementsforhighrisksystems #Safetystandardsformilitaryequipmentsystems #Systemsafetysolutionsforlargeprograms #Tailoringsystemsafetyprogramsforspecificneeds #Toolsforimplementingsafetystandardseffectively #Topriskanalysisstandardsforsafetyprograms #Understandingthepedigreeofsystemsafetystandards #WheretobuyMilitaryStandard882Ecompliancetools
Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/2024/08/28/understanding-your-risk-assessment-standard/

System Safety Risk Analysis
In this module, System Safety Risk Analysis, we're going to look at how we deal with the complexity of the real world. We do a formal risk analysis because real-world scenarios are complex. The Analysis helps us to understand what we need to do to keep people safe. Usually, we have some moral and legal obligation to do it as well. We need to do it well to protect people and prevent harm to people.

This post is part of a series:

- Intro to System Safety Risk Assessment

- Start of System Safety Risk Assessment

- Hazard & Risk Basics (SSRAP Module 1)

- This is SSRAP Module 2.

Aim: How do we deal with real-world complexity?

- What is System Safety?

- The Need for Process;

- A Realistic, Useful, Powerful process:

- Context, Communication & Consultation;

- Monitoring & Review, Risk Treatment; and

- Required Risk Reduction.

Transcript: System Safety Risk Analysis

What is System Safety?

To start with, here’s a little definition of system safety. System safety is the application of engineering and management principles, criteria, and techniques to achieve acceptable risk within a wider context.

This wider context is operational effectiveness - we want our system to do something. That's why we're buying it or making it. The system has to be suitable for its use. We've got some time and cost constraints, and we've got a life cycle. We can imagine we are developing something from concept, from cradle to grave.

And what are we developing? We're developing a system. An organization of hardware (or software) material, facilities, people, data, and services. All these pieces will perform a designated function within the system. The system will work within a stated or defined operating environment. It will work to produce specified results.

We've got three things here: a system; the operating environment in which it is designed to work; and, we have its function or application. Why did we buy it, or make it in the first place? What's it supposed to do? What benefits is it supposed to bring humankind? What does it mean in the context of the big picture?

That's what a system is. I'm not going to elaborate on systems theory or anything like that. That's a whole big subject on its own. But we're talking about something complex. We're not talking about a toaster. It's not consumer goods. It's something complicated that operates in the real world. And as I say, we need to understand those three things - system, environment, purpose - to work out Safety.

This is Module 2 of SSRAP

This is Module 2 from the System Safety Risk Assessment Program (SSRAP) Course. Risk Analysis Programs – Design a System Safety Program for any system in any application.

The full course comprises 15 lessons and 1.5 hours of video content, plus resources. It's on pre-sale at HALF PRICE until September 1st, 2024. Check out all the free preview videos here and order using the coupon “Pre-order-Half-Price-SSRAP”. But don't leave it too long because there are only 100 half-price courses available!

Meet the Author

Learn safety engineering with me, an industry professional with 25 years of experience. I have:

•Worked on aircraft, ships, submarines, ATMS, trains, and software;

•Tiny programs to some of the biggest (Eurofighter, Future Submarine);

•In the UK and Australia, on US and European programs;

•Taught safety to hundreds of people in the classroom, and thousands online;

•Presented on safety topics at several international conferences.
#AcceptableRiskCriteria #ALARPPrinciple #ApplyingtheALARPprinciple #Comprehensivesafetyengineeringtraining #Effectiveriskmitigationstrategies #HazardIdentificationandControl #Identifyandcontrolsafetyhazards #LearnSystemSafetyRiskAnalysis #Methodsforriskreductioninsafety #Onlinetrainingforsystemsafetyprofessionals #RealWorldRiskAnalysis #Realworldriskanalysistechniques #RiskMatrixApproach #RiskMitigationTechniques #RiskReductionMethods #SafetyEngineeringPrinciples #SystemSafetyRiskAnalysis #SystemSafetyTrainingOnline #Understandingacceptableriskcriteria #Usingariskmatrixforsafetyanalysis
Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/2024/08/14/system-safety-risk-analysis/

System Safety Risk Analysis
In this module, System Safety Risk Analysis, we're going to look at how we deal with the complexity of the real world. We do a formal risk analysis because real-world scenarios are complex. The Analysis helps us to understand what we need to do to keep people safe. Usually, we have some moral and legal obligation to do it as well. We need to do it well to protect people and prevent harm to people.

This post is part of a series:

- Intro to System Safety Risk Assessment

- Start of System Safety Risk Assessment

- Hazard & Risk Basics (SSRAP Module 1)

- This is SSRAP Module 2.

Aim: How do we deal with real-world complexity?

- What is System Safety?

- The Need for Process;

- A Realistic, Useful, Powerful process:

- Context, Communication & Consultation;

- Monitoring & Review, Risk Treatment; and

- Required Risk Reduction.

Transcript: System Safety Risk Analysis

What is System Safety?

To start with, here’s a little definition of system safety. System safety is the application of engineering and management principles, criteria, and techniques to achieve acceptable risk within a wider context.

This wider context is operational effectiveness - we want our system to do something. That's why we're buying it or making it. The system has got to be suitable for its use. We've got some time and cost constraints and we've got a life cycle. We can imagine we are developing something from concept, from cradle to grave.

And what are we developing? We're developing a system. An organization of hardware, (or software) material, facilities, people, data and services. All these pieces will perform a designated function within the system. The system will work within a stated or defined operating environment. It will work to produce specified results.

We've got three things here: a system; the operating environment in which it is designed to work; and, we have its function or application. Why did we buy it, or make, it in the first place? What's it supposed to do? What benefits is it supposed to bring humankind? What does it mean in the context of the big picture?

That's what a system is. I'm not going to elaborate on systems theory or anything like that. That's a whole big subject on its own. But we're talking about something complex. We're not talking about a toaster. It's not consumer goods. It's something complicated that operates in the real world. And as I say, we need to understand those three things - system, environment, purpose - to work out Safety.

This is Module 2 of SSRAP

This is Module 2 from the System Safety Risk Assessment Program (SSRAP) Course. Risk Analysis Programs – Design a System Safety Program for any system in any application.

The full course comprises 15 lessons and 1.5 hours of video content, plus resources. It's on pre-sale at HALF PRICE until September 1st, 2024. Check out all the free preview videos here and order using the coupon “Pre-order-Half-Price-SSRAP”. But don't leave it too long because there are only 100 half-price courses available!

Meet the Author

Learn safety engineering with me, an industry professional with 25 years of experience, I have:

•Worked on aircraft, ships, submarines, ATMS, trains, and software;

•Tiny programs to some of the biggest (Eurofighter, Future Submarine);

•In the UK and Australia, on US and European programs;

•Taught safety to hundreds of people in the classroom, and thousands online;

•Presented on safety topics at several international conferences.
#AcceptableRiskCriteria #ALARPPrinciple #ApplyingtheALARPprinciple #Comprehensivesafetyengineeringtraining #Effectiveriskmitigationstrategies #HazardIdentificationandControl #Identifyandcontrolsafetyhazards #LearnSystemSafetyRiskAnalysis #Methodsforriskreductioninsafety #Onlinetrainingforsystemsafetyprofessionals #RealWorldRiskAnalysis #Realworldriskanalysistechniques #RiskMatrixApproach #RiskMitigationTechniques #RiskReductionMethods #SafetyEngineeringPrinciples #SystemSafetyRiskAnalysis #SystemSafetyTrainingOnline #Understandingacceptableriskcriteria #Usingariskmatrixforsafetyanalysis
Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/2024/08/14/system-safety-risk-analysis/