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Masters Programme in Advanced Computer Science

System Dependability Module

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Masters programme information

Week Commencing 25th February 2008
This module takes a broad socio-technical perspective on system dependability, considering a wide range of reliability, availability, safety and security attributes. The focus of the content is not limited solely to software or hardware, but encompasses human and organisational considerations as well. This provides students with a unique "big picture" perspective not found in other similar courses.

This module draws from the wealth of experience and understanding gained from cutting edge research in the area of dependability. Both the lecturers and guest speakers are currently working on a large multi-site interdisciplinary research project within this area. The module provides students with a solid grounding in dependability theory combined with supporting insights gained from years of in-the-field ethnographic investigation of real world systems.

Course objectives

The course has the following objectives:
  • Students will gain a broad socio-technical understanding of dependability. They will learn to apply a range of different analysis and improvement approaches. By the end of the course they will be able to assess and discuss dependability attributes of a system as well as having an appreciation of dependability conflicts present in such systems.

Syllabus

The course covers a range of topics including:
  • Critical systems and system dependability; real-time issues and criticality (hard vs soft criticality).
  • Factors: environmental, hardware design and construction, operator interface, cognition, ethnographic.
  • Constraints: predictability, speed, reliability, adaptability, timing.
  • The brain as an engineering system. Human factor and ethnographic constraints on critical systems.

Assessment

Due to the fact that there will be no exam for this course, the coursework constitutes a significant amount of effort. Deadlines will however be set to ensure that this work will be easily achievable.


Recommended Reading

The following references are suggested reading, any required reading will be provided during the lectures.

  • [1] Abdel-Ghaly, A., Chan, P. Y., Littlewood, B., Evaluation of Competing Software Reliability Predictions, IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, Vol. 12 (9), IEEE Computer Society Press, 1986, pp950-967
  • [2] AKA marketing, Introduction to hacking, http://www.akamarketing.com/introduction-to-hacking.html, AKA marketing
  • [3] Arief, B., Besnard, D., Technical and Human Issues in Computer-Based Systems Security, http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/research/pubs/trs/papers/790.pdf, School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, March 2003
  • [4] Besnard, D., Greathead, D., A Cognitive Approach to Safe Violations, http://www.dirc.org.uk/publications/techreports/papers/7.pdf, School for Computer Science, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
  • [5] Gokhale, S., Trivedi, K. S., Log-logistic Software Reliability Growth Model, Proceedings of the High Assurance Systems Engineering Conference (HASE 98) , Gatheisburg, MD, November 1998, pp34-41
  • [6] Gollmann, D., Computer Security, Wiley and Sons, 1999
  • [7] Högskolan i Skövde, An Informal Introduction to Petri Nets , Högskolan i Skövde
  • [8] Hsueh, M., Tsai, T. K., Iyer, R. K., Fault injection techniques and tools, IEEE Computer, Vol. 30 (4), IEEE Computer Society Press, April 1997, pp75-82
  • [9] International Electrotechnical Commission, Draft Standard IEC 6150: Functional Safety of Electrical/Electronic/Programmable electronic safety-related systems, Geneva, 1998
  • [10] Kinetic, LLC, FMECA website, http://www.fmeca.com/, Kinetic, LLC
  • [11] Kirmse, D. W., Hazard and Operability (HazOp) Studies, http://pie.che.ufl.edu/guides/hazop/, University of Florida
  • [12] Knight, J. C., Leveson, N. G., An experimental evaluation of the assumptions of independence in multiversion programming, IEEE Computer, Vol.12 (1), IEEE Computer Society Press, January 1986, pp96-109
  • [13] Littlewood, B., Strigini, L., Software reliability and dependability: a roadmap, Proceedings of the conference on The future of Software engineering, Limerick, Ireland, ACM Press, 2000, pp175-188
  • [14] Musa, J. D., Iannino, A., Okumoto, K., Software Reliability: Measurement Prediction and Application, McGraw-Hill, 1987
  • [15] Perrow, C., Normal Accidents, New York, Basic Books Inc., 1984
  • [16] ReliaSoft Corporation, Availability, http://www.weibull.com/SystemRelWeb/availability.htm, ReliaSoft Corporation
  • [17] Smith, S. P., Harrison, M. D., Blending Descriptive and Numeric Analysis in Human Reliability Design, Interactive Systems: Design, Specification and Verification, Forbrig, P., Urban, B., Vanderdonckt, J., Limbourg, Q. eds, Springer-Verlag, 2002, pp223-237
  • [18] Sommerville, I., Software Engineering, 6th editition, Harlow, England, Addison Wesley, 2001
  • [19] Steve Hailey, What is computer forensics ?, http://www.cybersecurityinstitute.biz/forensics.htm, SP Hailey Enterprises,
  • [20] Storey, N., Safety-Critical Computer Systems, Addison Wesley, 1996
  • [21] Sundaram, A., An Introduction to Intrusion Detection, ACM Crossroads Student Magazine (http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds2-4/intrus.html), ACM Press
  • [22] UK Ministry of Defence, Procurement Executive, The Procurement of Safety Critical Software (Revised ed.), 1995, Chapters 9, 21

2007/08 course information

Date: Week commencing 25th February 2008
Lecturers: Dr Mark Rouncefield / Glen Dobson

Available as an 1 week intensive short course. Please see the short courses information page.