High Dependability Computing Program Modeling Dependability(2)

Individuals and organizations increasingly use sophisticated software systems from which they demand great reliance. “Reliance ” is contextually subjective and depends on the particular stakeholder’s needs; therefore, in different circumstances, the sta

Abstract

Individuals and organizations increasingly use sophisticated software systems from which they demand great reliance. “Reliance” is contextually subjective and depends on the particular stakeholder’s needs; therefore, in different circumstances, the stakeholders will focus on different properties of such systems, e.g., continuity, availability, performance, real-time response, ability to avoid catastrophic failures, capability of resisting adverse conditions, and prevention of deliberate privacy intrusions. The concept of dependability enables these various concerns to be subsumed within a single conceptual framework.

Achieving dependability is a major challenge, which has spawned many efforts both at national and international levels. This work is part of the High Dependability Computing Program (HDCP), a five-year cooperative research agreement between NASA and various universities and research centers to increase NASA’s ability to engineer highly dependable software systems.

HDCP brings together, under the common goal of improving systems dependability, a large and heterogeneous group of actors, from industry and academia alike, with various perspectives, and different (sometimes even conflicting) needs. Thus, the polysemous nature of the concept of dependability, while unifying so many different efforts, brings also the risk of creating confusion, making the task of developing dependable systems even more difficult.

From this perspective, the Unified Model of Dependability (UMD) aims to establish a common language for discussing a variety of dependability attributes, and to make them measurable. To capture stakeholders’ dependability needs and perspectives, UMD takes into account different aspects of a dependability attribute, including the affected system functionalities, the acceptable manifestation of a specific failure (hazard) or class of failures (hazards), the external events (adverse conditions, attacks, etc.) that can create an unreliable system, and the expected system reaction to mitigate failures (hazards) impact over the stakeholders.

By providing a structured approach to eliciting and organizing both functional and non-functional dependability requirements, UMD helps the stakeholders to better express their needs, understand interactions among the dependability attributes, and set the corresponding values.

In order to illustrate the features and capabilities of UMD, an Air Traffic Control System is used as case study.