Safety evaluation and management of complex systems: A system engineering approach

This article addresses the problem of safety evaluation of complex systems. It proposes an original and rigorous approach that integrates safety analysis in system engineering processes. The approach is based on system engineering principles and uses the famous industrial system engineering standard American National Standards Institute/Electronic Industries Alliance 632:1999. The objective is to help designers and safety engineers in safety management of complex systems. For an efficient design, the model-driven design is adopted through the definition of an information model. The system language "System Modeling Language" is used to address requirements definition and their traceability toward the solution and the verification and validation elements. This common language allows sharing information between the different persons involved in the design project like the system engineer and safety engineer.