Published: December 5, 2001
Citation: International Journal of Reliability, Quality and Safety Engineering vol. 8, no. 4, (December 2001) pp. 351-371
Author(s)
Dolores Wallace, Richard Kuhn
Most complex systems today contain software, and systems failures activated by software faults can provide lessons for software development practices and software quality assurance. This paper presents an analysis of software-related failures of medical devices that caused no death or injury but led to recalls by the manufacturers. The analysis categorizes the failures by their symptoms and faults, and discusses methods of preventing and detecting faults in each category. The nature of the faults provides lessons about the value of generally accepted quality practices for prevention and detection methods applied prior to system release. It also provides some insight into the need for formal requirements specification and for improved testing of complex hardware-software systems.
Most complex systems today contain software, and systems failures activated by software faults can provide lessons for software development practices and software quality assurance. This paper presents an analysis of software-related failures of medical devices that caused no death or injury but led...
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Most complex systems today contain software, and systems failures activated by software faults can provide lessons for software development practices and software quality assurance. This paper presents an analysis of software-related failures of medical devices that caused no death or injury but led to recalls by the manufacturers. The analysis categorizes the failures by their symptoms and faults, and discusses methods of preventing and detecting faults in each category. The nature of the faults provides lessons about the value of generally accepted quality practices for prevention and detection methods applied prior to system release. It also provides some insight into the need for formal requirements specification and for improved testing of complex hardware-software systems.
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Keywords
assurance; detection failures; fault model; medical device; prevention; software quality assurance
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