Abstract
The issues raised so far in the development of safety-critical systems have centered on how effectively the safety requirements are met in systems design. The systems are becoming more complex due to the increasing demand on the functionality and performance. As such, the integration of both the systems design and systems safety processes becomes more important and at the same time quite difficult to carry out. In this paper, an approach to solving the problem is presented, which is based on an integrated data model. To do so, the data generated from the inputs and outputs of the systems design and systems safety processes are analyzed first. The results of analysis are used to extract common attributes among the data, thereby making it possible to define classes. The classes then become the cores of the interface data model through which the interaction between the two processes under study can be modeled and interpreted. The approach taken has also been applied in a design case to demonstrate its value. It is expected that the results of the study could play a role of the stepping stone in extending to the architecture development of the integrated process.