Topics in Dataware Safety

The High-Integrity Systems Engineering Group at the University of York has been grappling with numerous aspects of the use of data in safety-critical systems for a number of years. These interests span the use of data as a means of ensuring and assuring system safety. Like other practitioners, we have seen a rise in the amount of data available and the reliance on this data to provide services and safety over the last few years. This aspect of systems and system safety needs to be considered on the same level as other contributors to the safety of a system, such as hardware or software, hence "dataware". In this talk, the nature of dataware and its challenges to system safety are explored through "war stories". Topics addressed include: designing with data, data chain interfaces and operating with data. The talk progresses on to summarise a number of strategies that have been proposed by researchers within the university and industrial practitioners affiliated with the university.