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PLFaultCAT: A Product-Line Software Fault Tree Analysis Tool

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Abstract

Industry currently employs a product line approach to software development and deployment as a means to enhance quality while reducing development cost and time. This effort has created a climate where safety-critical software product lines are being developed without the full range of accompanying safety analysis tools available to software engineers. Software Fault Tree Analysis (SFTA) is a technique that has been used successfully to investigate contributing causes to potential hazards in safety-critical applications. This paper further extends the adaptation of SFTA to product lines of systems by describing a software safety analysis tool called PLFaultCAT. PLFaultCAT is an interactive, partially-automated support tool to aid software engineers in the application of product-line software SFTA. The paper describes the integration of product-line SFTA and PLFaultCAT with the software development life cycle. The description includes the initial construction of the product-line SFTA as well as the automated derivation of software fault trees for product line members. The technique and tool are illustrated with a small case study throughout the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Iowa State University, 226 Atanasoff Hall, Ames, IA, 50011

    Josh Dehlinger

  2. Department of Computer Science, Iowa State University, 226 Atanasoff Hall, Ames, IA, 50011

    Robyn R. Lutz

  3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, Pasadena, CA, 91109

    Robyn R. Lutz

Authors
  1. Josh Dehlinger
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  2. Robyn R. Lutz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Josh Dehlinger.

Additional information

This paper is an extended version of the paper “Software Fault Tree Analysis for Product Lines” presented by the authors at HASE, 2004, Tampa, FL. March 2004.

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Dehlinger, J., Lutz, R.R. PLFaultCAT: A Product-Line Software Fault Tree Analysis Tool. Autom Software Eng 13, 169–193 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10515-006-5469-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10515-006-5469-1

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