First workshop with EAB members

The first workshop with the members of the AMASS EAB (External Advisory Board) was held in Trento, Italy, on September 11th, at FBK premises. This board consists of international experts in critical-system assurance and certification, from different domains (aerospace, automotive, healthcare, nuclear…) and with different roles (engineers, assessors, researchers etc.).

Twenty-four people attended the workshop, including 10 EAB members: Miren Illarramendi, Timo Varkoi, Johnny Marques, Marion Lepmets, Anders Sandin, Kurt Tschabuschnig, Laurent Fabre, Tim Kelly, Javier Ibañez-Guzman, and Antonio Priore. The topics presented included a project overview, the technical vision, a selection of case studies, the technical work packages (architecture-driven assurance, multi-concern assurance, seamless interoperability, and cross- and intra-domain reuse), and project outreach. Specific sessions were also used for in-depth discussion.

The EAB acknowledged the ambition and difficulty of the areas addressed in AMASS. Among the main discussion and feedback points on technical challenges, the members suggested that AMASS needs to pay especial attention to: (1) the use of contracts for architecture-driven assurance and how the contracts relate to argumentation; (2) how to unify processes for safety & security co-assurance and be open to different kinds of processes; (3) the provision of clear information about the objectives and limitations of the specific solutions for tool integration, and; (4) the extent to which certain application domains pose additional constraints for assurance reuse (e.g. through product lines). For industrial impact, the EAB emphasised the need for providing guidelines on how different companies would get benefit from AMASS (e.g. through user stories) and on what they need to learn to understand AMASS usage.

Another EAB workshop will be arranged next year to present the progress of the project and get further insights from the EAB members.