System Safety Pro

Monday, August 11, 2025

Courses
Here are some of the courses that you can buy from The Safety Artisan – follow the Udemy Course Links.

Stand-Alone Courses

How to Design a System Safety Program

https://www.udemy.com/course/system-safety-risk-analysis-programs/?referralCode=38B31C7BDD4DED49E44E

System Safety Engineering Process

https://www.udemy.com/course/system-safety-engineering-process/?referralCode=AA799BF5235D13D868D5

Principles of Software Safety Standards

https://www.udemy.com/course/principles-of-safe-software-design/?referralCode=25398951621CFC5B8471

System Safety Engineering Courses

How to: Preliminary Hazard Identification (Mil-Std-882E)

https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-preliminary-hazard-identification-mil-std-882e/?referralCode=F681CF650D3BDDAD307B

How to: Preliminary Hazard Analysis (Mil-Std-882E)

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6187483/?referralCode=1A153CA582E27235304D

How: System Requirements Hazard Analysis with Mil-Std-882E

https://www.udemy.com/course/how-system-requirements-hazard-analysis-with-mil-std-882e/?referralCode=919C1FCE9C325351BA24

How To: Sub-System Hazard Analysis (per Standard)

https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-sub-system-hazard-analysis-with-mil-std-882e/?referralCode=D014CFEB810BD288A741

How to do System Hazard Analysis (per Standard)

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6213023/?referralCode=C586042AEC0B17DD4A0D

How to: Operating & Support Hazard Analysis (Mil-Std-882E)

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6222279/?referralCode=52AC8A5582A67DE77BB0

How to do Health Hazard Analysis with Mil-Std-882E

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6222285/?referralCode=F589E3A00F2F19CACDD3

How to do Functional Hazard Analysis with Mil-Std-882E

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6231311/?referralCode=E23E561F0202ACECA30B

How to do System of System Hazard Analysis (per Standard)

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6243643/?referralCode=AEE718911215D78E6D94

How to do Environmental Hazard Analysis with Mil-Std-882E

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6238409/?referralCode=4253568A1CF2CD848BB8

Free Courses

Introduction to System / Product / Design Safety Concepts

https://www.udemy.com/course/introduction-to-system-product-design-safety-concepts/?referralCode=E173BDB0AD2525946E04

How to Prepare for the CISSP Exam

https://www.udemy.com/course/my-cissp-2021-exam-journey/?referralCode=579F4FD19E8ED2865D54

Risk Management 101

https://www.udemy.com/course/risk-management-101-b/?referralCode=E7C50B702696E593C59D

Back to home.

Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/courses/

Software Safety Assurance and Standards

This post, Software Safety Assurance and Standards, is the fifth in a series of six blog posts on Principles of Software Safety Assurance. In it, 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...

In this post, we assess how well specific, popular standards apply the 4+1 Principles. In particular, I add some insights from my experience in large-scale software projects (since 1994) to give further commentary. My comments are .

The perfect software safety standard doesn't exist. Arguably, it never will, as standards must be generic to ensure that they are widely applicable, whereas software projects may have particular needs. However, if we understand these standards we can discover their weaknesses and tailor them, and/or add to them accordingly.

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.

Relationship to Existing Software Safety Standards

The ideas of software safety assurance discussed in this article are not explicit in most software safety standards, though they are typically present. However, by concentrating only on adherence to the letter of these standards, software developers using these standards are likely to lose sight of the primary goals (e.g. through box-ticking). We look at manifestations of each of the Principles in some of the most popular software safety standards below - IEC 61508, ISO 26262, and DO 178C.

Principle 1

IEC 61508 and ISO 26262 both demonstrate how hazard analysis at the system level and software safety criteria have been linked. High-level requirements that address system requirements assigned to software to prevent system risks must be defined, according to DO-178C. Particularly when used in conjunction with companion standard ARP 4754, this addresses Principle 1.

Principle 2

Traceability in software needs is always required. The standards also place a strong emphasis on the software requirements' iterative validation.

Specific examples of requirements decomposition models are provided by DO-178C and ISO26262. Capturing the justification for the required traceability is an area where standards frequently fall short (a crucial aspect of Principle 2).

What is particularly lacking is a focus on upholding the purpose of the software safety rules. Richer types of traceability that take the requirements' purpose into account rather than just syntactic ones at various phases of development are needed for this.

Principle 3

The basis of the software safety standards is guidance on requirement satisfaction. Although there are distinct disparities in the advised methods of pleasure, this principle is generally thoroughly addressed (for example DO-178 traditionally placed a strong emphasis on testing).

Principle 4

This requires that the absence of mistakes introduced during the software lifetime be demonstrated. Aspects of this principle can be seen in the standards. However, of all the standards, the software hazard analysis part receives the least attention.

The standards imply that system-level safety analysis is a process. The purpose of software development is to prove that requirements, including safety requirements assigned to software, as produced by system-level procedures, are correct. At later phases of the development process, these criteria are refined and put into practice without explicitly applying software hazard analysis.

There is no specific requirement in DO 178C to identify "emerging" safety risks during software development, but it does permit recognized safety issues to be transmitted back to the system level.

Principle 4+1

All standards share the idea of modifying the software assurance strategy in accordance with "risk." However, there are significant differences in how the software's criticality is assessed. IEC 61508 establishes a Safety Integrity Level based on the probability delta in risk reduction, DO-178B emphasizes severity, and ISO 26262 adds the idea of the vehicle's controllability. At various levels of criticality, the suggested strategies and processes vary greatly as well.

Software Safety Assurance and Standards: End of Part 5 (of 6)

This blog post is derived from ‘The Principles of Software Safety Assurance’, 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. The next post in the series is 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.

#applicablestandardsforsoftware #applysafetyprinciples #applysoftwarestandard #bestsoftwaresafety #bestsoftwarestandard #safetyandstandards #safetycriticalsoftwarestandards #safetyspecsstandards #safetystandard #softwaredevelopmentprocessstandards #softwaresafetystandard #softwarestandard #softwarestandardsandprotocols #softwarestandardscourse #softwarestandardslist #softwarestandardstraining #softwaresystemsafety #standardforsoftwarelifecycle #standardsoftwaredevelopmentprocess #standardsoftwarelifecycle #thesafetystandard #understandsafetystandards #whatisastandardsoftware

Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/2022/11/16/software-safety-assurance-and-standards/

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Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/connect/

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Courses
Here are some of the courses that you can buy: The Safety Artisan – Udemy Course Links.

Stand-Alone Courses

How to Design a System Safety Program

https://www.udemy.com/course/system-safety-risk-analysis-programs/?referralCode=38B31C7BDD4DED49E44E

System Safety Engineering Process

https://www.udemy.com/course/system-safety-engineering-process/?referralCode=AA799BF5235D13D868D5

Principles of Software Safety Standards

https://www.udemy.com/course/principles-of-safe-software-design/?referralCode=25398951621CFC5B8471

System Safety Engineering Courses

How to: Preliminary Hazard Identification (Mil-Std-882E)

https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-preliminary-hazard-identification-mil-std-882e/?referralCode=F681CF650D3BDDAD307B

How to: Preliminary Hazard Analysis (Mil-Std-882E)

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6187483/?referralCode=1A153CA582E27235304D

How: System Requirements Hazard Analysis with Mil-Std-882E

https://www.udemy.com/course/how-system-requirements-hazard-analysis-with-mil-std-882e/?referralCode=919C1FCE9C325351BA24

How To: Sub-System Hazard Analysis (per Standard)

https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-sub-system-hazard-analysis-with-mil-std-882e/?referralCode=D014CFEB810BD288A741

How to do System Hazard Analysis (per Standard)

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6213023/?referralCode=C586042AEC0B17DD4A0D

How to: Operating & Support Hazard Analysis (Mil-Std-882E)

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6222279/?referralCode=52AC8A5582A67DE77BB0

How to do Health Hazard Analysis with Mil-Std-882E

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6222285/?referralCode=F589E3A00F2F19CACDD3

How to do Functional Hazard Analysis with Mil-Std-882E

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6231311/?referralCode=E23E561F0202ACECA30B

How to do System of System Hazard Analysis (per Standard)

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6243643/?referralCode=AEE718911215D78E6D94

How to do Environmental Hazard Analysis with Mil-Std-882E

https://www.udemy.com/course/draft/6238409/?referralCode=4253568A1CF2CD848BB8

Free Courses

Introduction to System / Product / Design Safety Concepts

https://www.udemy.com/course/introduction-to-system-product-design-safety-concepts/?referralCode=E173BDB0AD2525946E04

How to Prepare for the CISSP Exam

https://www.udemy.com/course/my-cissp-2021-exam-journey/?referralCode=579F4FD19E8ED2865D54

Risk Management 101

https://www.udemy.com/course/risk-management-101-b/?referralCode=E7C50B702696E593C59D

Back to home.

Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/courses/

Friday, August 8, 2025

About

About The Safety Artisan - Safety Engineering and Risk Management Expert

About The Safety Artisan

https://youtu.be/qebeBeGj__4

Hi, everyone, and welcome to The Safety Artisan. I'm Simon, and I just wanted to share with you briefly why I started this enterprise. I've had a career in safety, engineering, and safety consulting for over 25 years now. And in that time, I've seen customers make one of two mistakes quite often. First of all, I've seen customers not do some things that they should have been doing. This was usually because they just were ignorant of what their legal obligations were.

And I guess that's a fairly obvious mistake. That's what you would expect me to say. But more often, I've seen customers do too much to try and achieve safety, which is surprising! I've seen people waste a lot of time, energy, and money doing things that just didn't make a difference. Sometimes it actually got in the way of doing good safety work.

And I think the reasons for those mistakes are, first of all, ignorance.

Secondly, not knowing precisely what safety is and therefore not being able to work out how to get there. That's why I started The Safety Artisan. I wanted to equip people with the knowledge of what safety really is and the tools to get there efficiently. To neither do too much nor too little. We want Safety, Just Right.

Simon Di Nucci, CPEng, FIEAust, NERNational Engineering RegisterMy Certified Skills

I have 25+ years of experience in safety engineering and consultancy. I've worked on aircraft, ships, submarines, air-traffic management systems, trains, and software. As an engineer and consultant, I've served on tiny projects and some of the biggest programs in the world.

I have worked in the UK and Australia, and on several projects, I've introduced American-made systems to both countries. It has been my privilege to teach safety to hundreds of people in the classroom. And I've presented on safety topics at several international conferences. See my full resume/CV here.

Our Mission and Values

artisan/ˈɑːtɪzan,ɑːtɪˈzan/Learn to pronounce noun

A worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand. “street markets where local artisans display handwoven textiles, painted ceramics, and leather goods”.

When I was choosing a name for my business, I thought of quite a lot of alternatives. I settled on The Safety Artisan for three reasons. First, I liked the meaning of the word. An individual pursuing their craft and trying to do it to the very best of their abilities.

Second, I liked the application. I’ve worked on a lot of very large, even multi-billion-dollar projects; but we’re still knowledge workers. We’re still individuals who must be competent to deliver good results for people.

And third, I liked the idea. Imagine a cottage industry of artisans working at home, delivering goods and services that other people can use wherever they are. Right now, you might be home or you might be on your mobile phone listening to this.

So, I liked all three of those things. I thought, yes, that’s what I’m about. That’s what I believe in and want to do. Does that sound good to you, too? Then check out The Safety Artisan's Topics, where I provide #safety #engineering #training.

Simon Di Nucci https://www.safetyartisan.com/about/