Requirements management for safety-critical systems. Overview of solutions

Requirements are an integral part of any software and hardware development process. The area where requirements become significantly important is the development of safety-critical systems which usage may cause risks on human lives. So the process of their development is often maintained by certification centers that requires from developers to meet the best practices supporting the safety of end product. This article reveals one possible approach to requirements management that was based on experience of embedded hardware development for civil avionics. This approach is now spread over different areas. Authors list the set of common tasks related to given approach. They also define the set of software features used to reduce the complexity of development and to mitigate risks. Authors review set of existing solutions in requirements management area using the listed features. In this article it is also defined on how given features can be applied within the given approach.