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IEC 61508
IEC 61508 Compliance and Tools
Fulfill software verification and validation for IEC 61508 with Parasoft C/C++ testing solutions. Cut costs for achieving IEC 61508 compliance. Automate the testing methods required by the standard.
IEC 61508
What Is IEC 61508?
IEC 61508 is an international standard governing the functional safety of electrical, electronic, and programmable electronic (E/E/PE) systems. It provides a framework for ensuring the safety and reliability of systems throughout the development life cycle.
Satisfy IEC 61508
Ensure your safety-critical software meets rigorous safety integrity requirements by mastering IEC 61508 verification processes, avoiding critical failures, and ensuring compliance requirements.
Guide to Achieving Functional Safety in Industrial Automation
Learn how to leverage automated testing to fully or partially satisfy software development process requirements for particular SIL levels within the IEC 61508 standard.
Benefits Parasoft Brings to IEC 61508
Achieve compliance for industrial automation systems by automating verification and validation processes such as code reviews, requirements traceability, static analysis, unit testing, and code coverage. This approach reduces development costs, ensures safety and security, and accelerates certification timelines.
Static Analysis – IEC 61508
Automatically examine your source code using our powerful code analysis engine for early detection of potential errors, security vulnerabilities, and coding standard violations. This ensures compliance with coding standards like MISRA, CERT, and more.
Ensure Compliance With Functional Safety Standards | Teams gain compliance support from Parasoft through a variety of testing methods like requirements traceability and compliance reporting. These methods ensure safe, secure, and reliable C and C++ applications. |
Static Analysis Security Testing (SAST) | Ensure robust software security for safety-critical systems. Integrate the following into your static analysis processes:
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Control Flow Analysis | Identify potential execution paths through a program and track control movement. This enables detection of dead code or logic and flow-related issues critical to satisfying compliance. |
Data Flow Analysis | Identify vulnerabilities such as uninitialized variables and injection flaws. Also find unsafe data handling in electronic systems with sensors, control logic, actuators, and microprocessors requiring high safety integrity levels (SIL). |
Walkthroughs & Inspections | Enhance static analysis with walkthroughs or our Code Review module. Automate preparation, notification, and tracking. This will ensure efficient reviews align with the standard’s requirements for independent assessment and traceability. |
Test Smarter With AI & ML | Leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance static analysis workflows. Teams can automate the prioritization of critical issues. GenAI explains and suggests fixes for static analysis violations to streamline compliance efforts. |
Dynamic Analysis – IEC 61508
Automate test execution to detect issues during runtime. Doing so is essential for satisfying validation needs. Our software testing framework for C and C++ supports unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and more. Teams can also take advantage of popular frameworks like GoogleTest.
Unit Testing | Isolate units with automated stubbing frameworks and mocks to validate behavior across various inputs. This ensures compliance with IEC 61508 safety integrity levels. |
Automated Test Case Generation | Generate test cases automatically to cover edge cases and error conditions, reducing manual effort. It also increases test coverage to ensure that every line of code is inspected. |
Structural Code Coverage | Satisfy 100% code coverage requirements with Parasoft’s support for statement, branch, and MC/DC code coverage. Ensure thorough testing to identify untested and dead code. |
Requirements Traceability
Automate bidirectional traceability between requirements, test cases, test results, the source code, and code reviews to meet objectives and fulfill compliance demands. Maintain alignment with IEC 61508’s focus on life cycle documentation and the requirements traceability matrix.
Compliance Reporting
Automatically track progress toward IEC 61508 compliance with dynamic dashboards. Generate reports to demonstrate compliance and address audits. Teams also gain visibility into testing outcomes, even for large or legacy codebases.
Incorporate Static and Dynamic Analysis Into Your CI/CD Workflow
Parasoft’s static analysis, unit testing, regression testing, code coverage, and requirements traceability integrate seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines. Teams can also incorporate most of these capabilities into other testing frameworks like Boost.Test to ensure reliable, safety-compliant software that is aligned with IEC 61508.
Tool Qualification
Our C/C++ testing solutions have been TÜV SÜD certified according to IEC 61508 across all SIL levels. The compliance certificate satisfies IEC 61508 requirements, requiring no further action. If desired, we offer a tool qualification kit that automates the process to perform tool qualification within your development ecosystem.
Solutions to Help Meet IEC 61508 Objectives
C/C++test
C/C++test is a comprehensive automated software testing solution for safety-critical applications and integrates seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines and IDEs. Ensure that your software satisfies verification requirements defined in IEC 61508 with static analysis, dynamic analysis, requirements traceability, code coverage, and report generation.
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Why Parasoft?
Gain unique advantages for compliance through our comprehensive solutions. By automating critical processes such as static and dynamic analysis, requirements traceability, and structural code coverage, Parasoft ensures efficient and reliable verification of safety-critical medical device software. Our solutions integrate seamlessly into existing development environments. Teams streamline workflows and accelerate compliance efforts.
Dedicated Integrations
Simplify workflows for complex safety-critical systems by integrating Parasoft’s solutions with embedded IDEs and debuggers. Supported environments include Eclipse, VS Code, Green Hills MULTI, Wind River Workbench, and more.
System-to-System Testing for Functional Safety
For system-level testing, use Parasoft SOAtest and Virtualize. Automate functional API testing and stabilize dependencies to accelerate IEC 61508 compliance activities.
Time and Cost Savings
Reduce the time and cost of compliance with IEC 61508. Automate labor-intensive tasks with our solutions, which provide targeted insights.
On-Target Hardware Software Testing
Ensure accurate and reliable software performance when it’s integrated with actual hardware. Use our C/C++ testing solutions to test the software on the actual target hardware. This is a must in detecting hardware-specific issues, validating assumptions, and meeting requirements for real-world conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Elevate your software testing with Parasoft solutions.