Design of software for safety critical systems

In this paper, we provide an overview of the use of formal methods in the development of safety critical systems and the notion ofsafety in the context. Our attempt would be to draw lessons from the various research efforts that have gone in towards the development of robust/reliable software for safety-critical systems. In the context of India leaping into hi-tech areas, we argue for the need of a thrust in the development of quality software and also discuss the steps to be initiated towards such a goal. “If only we could learn the right lessons from the successes of the past, we would not need to learn from our failures” C.A.R. Hoare An earlier version was presented as an Invited paper at the ISRO Conference on Software Engineering, VSSC, Trivandrum, 29–30 July 1994.