Assurance via workflow+ modelling and conformance [article]

Zinovy Diskin, Nicholas Annable, Alan Wassyng, Mark Lawford
2019 arXiv   pre-print
We propose considering assurance as a model management enterprise: saying that a system is safe amounts to specifying three workflows modelling how the safety engineering process is defined and executed, and checking their conformance. These workflows are based on precise data modelling as in functional block diagrams, but their distinctive feature is the presence of relationships between the output data of a process and its input data; hence, the name "WorkflowPlus", WF+ . A typical WP^+ model
more » ... comprises three layers: (i) process and control flow, (ii) dataflow (with input-output relationships), and (iii) argument flow or constraint derivation. Precise dataflow modelling signifies a crucial distinction of (WP+)-based and GSN-based assurance, in which the data layer is mainly implicit. We provide a detailed comparative analysis of the two formalisms and conclude that GSN does not fulfil its promises.
arXiv:1912.09912v1 fatcat:42uwwgh74feoziqemt4uhqkneq