IEC 61508: Assessment, Certification and Other Assurance Measures

This presentation focuses on the safety assurance measures within international standard IEC 61508 ("Functional Safety of Electrical, Electronic and Programmable Electronic Safety-Related Systems"). IEC 61508, and other sector and product standards developed from it, have had a major impact on the application of electrical and electronic safety-related systems. In particular, the speaker examines the safety assurance measures that are part of the compliance requirements within IEC 61508. The presentation provides an overview of the key features of IEC 61508 which are relevant to effective assurance as well as covering explicit assurance measures, such as functional safety assessment, functional safety auditing, verification and validation. The presentation also covers various models for certification that have developed in relation to IEC 61508.