Second Version of the AMASS Reference Tool Architecture

The AMASS Reference Tool Architecture (ARTA) is a conceptual entity that embodies a common set of tool interfaces/adaptors, working methods, tool usage methodologies, and protocols that will allow any stakeholder of the assurance and certification process to seamlessly integrate their activities (e.g., product engineering, external/independent assessment, component/parts supply) into tool chains adapted to the specific needs of the targeted CPS markets. The second ARTA version has been finished in September 2017. It has been based on the first version prepared by November 2016 and will evolve into a final version by May 2018.

ARTA proposes a specification for a collaborative tool environment, which aims to support CPS assurance and certification activities. ARTA builds upon OPENCOSS, SafeCer, and CHESS conceptual, modelling and methodological frameworks. ARTA not only connects project achievements but also extends them for architecture-driven and multi-concern assurance, as well as for further cross-domain and intra-domain reuse capabilities and seamless interoperability mechanisms. In the second iteration, the main evolutions have been to (1) improve the functionalities of the basic building blocks solving some problems provided as feedback during the validation of the first prototype, and (2) provide more information about the interactions between these basic building blocks. We have also started providing some of the functionalities envisioned in the “advanced building blocks”.

The stakeholders of the ARTA can be divided into Managers (Project Manager, Assurance Manager, and IT Manager), Engineers (Development Engineer, Process Engineer, Assurance Engineer, Safety Engineer, and Security Engineer), and Assessors (Assurance Assessor, Independent Assessor, and Internal Assessor). The ARTA functional blocks correspond to overall infrastructure support (Assurance Project Management, Platform Management, and Assurance Traceability) and specific technical support (System Architecture Management, Assurance Case Management, Compliance Management, Evidence Management, Seamless Interoperability, Contract Management, Assurance Analysis/Assessment, and Cross/Intra-Domain Reuse).

Use cases have been specified for each functional block to represent the logical view of the ARTA. For example, for Assurance Case Management, seven use cases have been specified for Assurance Case Edition: Define and navigate an assurance case structure, Develop claims and links to evidence, Apply argument patterns, Reuse an argument module, Semi-automatic generation of product arguments, Automatic generation of process arguments, and Monitor status of argumentation. The functional blocks have also been decomposed into finer-grained components to define the structural view of the ARTA. For example, the components for Contract Management are Contract editor and Contract-based multi-concern assurance. Finally, the interactional view has also been created. An example of interaction corresponds to those necessary for Multi-concern co-analysis/assessment. The involved components are Assurance case editor, Co-analysis/assessment, and Evidence editor, as an assurance analysis could be defined while creating an assurance and the analysis results could be stored as evidence information in the AMASS Tool Platform.

Tool vendors or other stakeholders could either implement the AMASS platform following the information provided in the architectural views or use the functionalities and connect with their own external tools.