Keynote speech of International Workshop on DEvelopment, Verification and VAlidation of cRiTical Systems is held by Professor András Pataricza

Prof. András Pataricza was invited to the "1st International Workshop on DEvelopment, Verification and VAlidation of cRiTical Systems (DEVVARTS 2014)" to give a keynote speech. In his keynote titled “Towards Effort and Quality Estimation of V&V Processes” András had overviewed recent results of the international "CECRIS (CErtification of CRItical Systems) FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IAPP project.

Abstract: Cost estimation was developed based on the experiences of large SW industries. Development processes in such enterprises are typically performed entirely in-house and rely on a monolithic design, implementation and test culture. Accordingly, most cost estimators look at the development process at large. Even the model of finest granularity takes for instance testing as a single elementary activity. However; V&V of critical applications becomes more and more to a core activity of specialized SMEs performing only specific parts of the checking process. Unfortunately, no KPI estimator exists at the resolution of individual steps (requirement V&V, test specification, test implementation etc.) for checking critical systems. The lack of fine granular cost estimators focusing on the individual activities related to V&VA and certification becomes to a critical bottleneck for instance in the embedded systems (ES) industry. Depending on the level of criticality and complexity, the share of V&V in the total effort of an ES design is the same or one order of magnitude higher compared to that related to functional design and implementation.Technology development for instance introduction of sophisticated formal methods for V&V necessarily involves upgrade of the skills of the personnel. The total cost related to the introduction a new technology needs a calculation of RoI (return of investment), especially in SMEs specialized to V&V. Creating V&V specific cost estimators is a promising task by following same approach as it was done for overall software development. V&V and certification related sub-processes are just another specific kind of software processes. For instance, implementation testing may start from the very same specification as functional design and has to deliver test programs testing based validation) or a executable abstract system model described in some automata theory oriented programming language (formal validation).