Using Process Models in System Assurance

When creating an assurance justification for a critical system, the focus is often on demonstrating technical properties of that system. Complete, compelling justifications also require consideration of the processes used to develop the system. Creating such justifications can be an onerous task for systems using complex processes and highly integrated tool chains. In this paper we describe how process models can be used to automatically generate the process justifications required in assurance cases for critical systems. We use an example case study to illustrate an implementation of the approach. We describe the advantages that this approach brings for system assurance and the development of critical systems.