The deployed systems in air and space travel or automotive engineering must function error-free. Even a partial failure can bring lives into danger, have catastrophic effects on the environment or at least destroy expensive equipment. In addition, within the area of consumer goods (e.g. mobile phones, audio players, DVD recorders, etc.) the reliability of the systems is coming increasingly under the spotlight due to the large numbers of items and the high costs of the elimination of errors in the event of a fault. The dependability of the systems is therefore indispensable. This must be considered in all steps of system development; during conception, design and development, evaluation, analysis and certification.

Closely connected with it is the theme "Product Assurance". Correctly deployed, this should finally guarantee the production of a high-quality product and/or system.

The business unit has many years of experience within the area of software engineering for dependable systems, for example by the use of solution samples and proven models such as object orientation or components. Software-intensive systems require high-quality software engineering processes. "Our goal is to be the leader in technology development," declares Franco Fresolone, Head of the Software Systems business unit.

With safety-critical, software-intensive systems, an examination of the provided software is usually required by an independent third party despite the employment of safe software engineering methods. Our accredited inspection station concentrates on all those activities, which make this examination possible and also serves as a basis for possible certification. Examinations take place in the EN ISO/IEC 17025 accredited test laboratory - for safety-critical software according IEC 61508 and/or ISO/IEC 9126.

Five criteria for the evaluation of the dependability of safety-critical systems have been internationally established as standard: Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety and Security: RAMSS. The business unit offers RAMSS as a service for manufacturers and operators of safety-critical, software-intensive systems.