Developing a low-cost high-quality software tool for dynamic fault-tree analysis

TLDR

Reliability engineering and related fields rely on sophisticated modeling and analysis methods, yet widespread adoption is hampered by the difficulty of producing cost‑effective, usable, dependable, and evolvable software tools. The paper proposes a tool‑development approach that directly addresses these cost and usability barriers to enable broader use of advanced reliability analysis methods. This approach involves building the Galileo core for fault‑tree modeling and analysis while applying software‑engineering practices that guarantee high quality, low cost, and evolvability of the tool. Applying the approach, the authors developed Galileo, a fault‑tree modeling and analysis tool.

Abstract

Sophisticated modeling and analysis methods are being developed in academic and industrial research labs for reliability engineering and other domains. The evaluation and evolution of such methods based on use in practice is critical to research progress, but few such methods see widespread use. A critical impediment to disseminating new methods is the inability to produce, at a reasonable cost, supporting software tools that have the: usability and dependability characteristics that industrial users require; and evolvability to accommodate software change as the underlying analysis methods are refined and enhanced. The difficulty of software development thus emerges as a key impediment to advances in engineering modeling and analysis. This paper presents an approach to tool development that attacks these problems. Progress requires synergistic, interdisciplinary collaborations between application-domain and software-engineering researchers. The authors have pursued such an approach in developing Galileo: a fault tree modeling and analysis tool. These innovations are described in two dimensions: (1) the Galileo core reliability modeling and analysis function; and (2) the authors' work on software engineering for high-quality, low-cost modeling and analysis tools.