A case study of agile software development for safety-Critical systems projects

Gibrail Islam and Tim Storer

Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2020, vol. 200, issue C

Abstract: This study explores the introduction of agile software development within an avionics company engaged in safety-critical system engineering. There is increasing pressure throughout the software industry for development efforts to adopt agile software development in order to respond more rapidly to changing requirements and make more frequent deliveries of systems to customers for review and integration. This pressure is also being experienced in safety-critical industries, where release cycles on typically large and complex systems may run to several years on projects spanning decades. However, safety-critical system developments are normally highly regulated, which may constrain the adoption of agile software development or require adaptation of selected methods or practices. To investigate this potential conflict, we conducted a series of interviews with practitioners in the company, exploring their experiences of adopting agile software development and the challenges encountered. The study also explores the opportunities for altering the existing software process in the company to better fit agile software development to the constraints of software development for safety-critical systems. We conclude by identifying immediate future research directions to better align the tempo of software development for safety-critical systems and agile software development.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reensy:v:200:y:2020:i:c:s0951832018308597

DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2020.106954

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