Assessing a Safety Case: Bottom-up Guidance for Claims and Evidence Evaluation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Schnelle, Scott, Favaro, Francesca, Fraade-Blanar, Laura, Wichner, David, Broce, Holland, Miranda, Justin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Schnelle, Scott
Favaro, Francesca
Fraade-Blanar, Laura
Wichner, David
Broce, Holland
Miranda, Justin
author_facet Schnelle, Scott
Favaro, Francesca
Fraade-Blanar, Laura
Wichner, David
Broce, Holland
Miranda, Justin
contents As Automated Driving Systems (ADS) technology advances, ensuring safety and public trust requires robust assurance frameworks, with safety cases emerging as a critical tool toward such a goal. This paper explores an approach to assess how a safety case is supported by its claims and evidence, toward establishing credibility for the overall case. Starting from a description of the building blocks of a safety case (claims, evidence, and optional format-dependent entries), this paper delves into the assessment of support of each claim through the provided evidence. Two domains of assessment are outlined for each claim: procedural support (formalizing process specification) and implementation support (demonstrating process application). Additionally, an assessment of evidence status is also undertaken, independently from the claims support. Scoring strategies and evaluation guidelines are provided, including detailed scoring tables for claim support and evidence status assessment. The paper further discusses governance, continual improvement, and timing considerations for safety case assessments. Reporting of results and findings is contextualized within its primary use for internal decision-making on continual improvement efforts. The presented approach builds on state of the art auditing practices, but specifically tackles the question of judging the credibility of a safety case. While not conclusive on its own, it provides a starting point toward a comprehensive "Case Credibility Assessment" (CCA), starting from the evaluation of the support for each claim (individually and in aggregate), as well as every piece of evidence provided. By delving into the technical intricacies of ADS safety cases, this work contributes to the ongoing discourse on safety assurance and aims to facilitate the responsible integration of ADS technology into society.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_09929
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Assessing a Safety Case: Bottom-up Guidance for Claims and Evidence Evaluation
Schnelle, Scott
Favaro, Francesca
Fraade-Blanar, Laura
Wichner, David
Broce, Holland
Miranda, Justin
Software Engineering
Computers and Society
As Automated Driving Systems (ADS) technology advances, ensuring safety and public trust requires robust assurance frameworks, with safety cases emerging as a critical tool toward such a goal. This paper explores an approach to assess how a safety case is supported by its claims and evidence, toward establishing credibility for the overall case. Starting from a description of the building blocks of a safety case (claims, evidence, and optional format-dependent entries), this paper delves into the assessment of support of each claim through the provided evidence. Two domains of assessment are outlined for each claim: procedural support (formalizing process specification) and implementation support (demonstrating process application). Additionally, an assessment of evidence status is also undertaken, independently from the claims support. Scoring strategies and evaluation guidelines are provided, including detailed scoring tables for claim support and evidence status assessment. The paper further discusses governance, continual improvement, and timing considerations for safety case assessments. Reporting of results and findings is contextualized within its primary use for internal decision-making on continual improvement efforts. The presented approach builds on state of the art auditing practices, but specifically tackles the question of judging the credibility of a safety case. While not conclusive on its own, it provides a starting point toward a comprehensive "Case Credibility Assessment" (CCA), starting from the evaluation of the support for each claim (individually and in aggregate), as well as every piece of evidence provided. By delving into the technical intricacies of ADS safety cases, this work contributes to the ongoing discourse on safety assurance and aims to facilitate the responsible integration of ADS technology into society.
title Assessing a Safety Case: Bottom-up Guidance for Claims and Evidence Evaluation
topic Software Engineering
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09929