Themes

The MOD have identified High Integrity and Safety Critical Software (HI&SCS), as a specific problem area. With HI&SCS, unintended software behaviour could lead to death or severe injury to personnel, or loss of specific mission capability. The SSEI has been established to provide a sound foundation for a coherent and centralised approach to pan-MOD HI&SCS management. The initial work is based around five technical themes.

The research programme will be developed in response to the needs identified by representatives from the MOD, industry and academia.

Themes are characterised by a key capability, reflecting the overall aim of the theme, and underpinned by descriptions of individual coherent elements, which together support that aim. The rationale for selecting the capabilities are defined in terms of MOD and industry benefit. The motivation for MOD is described from the point of view of IPTs, responsible for acquiring software-intensive systems and the industry viewpoint is primarily that of a prime contractor, though supply chain and through life issues have also been considered, where appropriate.

These capabilities are used to help guide the research, including selection of new research tasks.