Single Point of Failure Overview (Preview)

Here's a summary video on Single Points of Failure for safety- and mission-critical systems.

Single Point of Failure Preview [ECR] 

Other pointers on this topic (my blog posts):

• In-depth discussion of single points of failure
• Why self-monitoring doesn't mitigate single points of failure
• Example probability for why this matters so much
• How redundant input processing should work
• Doer/checker (monitor/actuator) pattern

For more about Edge Case Research and how to subscribe to our video training channel, please see this Blog posting.

Embedded Software Security, Safety & Quality (Preview)

Here's a summary video on Embedded Software Security, Safety & Quality.

Other pointers on this topic (my blog posts):

• Slides: "Embedded System Software Quality: Why is it so often terrible? What can we do about it?"
• Safety Culture
• Autonomous vehicle safety
• General list of posts on safety
• General list of posts on security
• Top Embedded Software Problem Areas

PREVIEW: Embedded Software Quality Safety and Security [ECR] 

For more about Edge Case Research and how to subscribe to our video training channel, please see this Blog posting.

Spaghetti Code and Complexity Tutorial

Here's a preview video on Spaghetti Code and Cyclomatic Complexity.  There is also a full version of this video available for free from the Edge Case Research video library (see below for details).

Notes:

• Also see my blog posting on avoiding high cyclomatic complexity (Blog)
• Toyota Unintended Acceleration and the Big Bowl of “Spaghetti” Code (Safety Research & Strategies Blog)

Spaghetti Code Preview [ECR] .

Full tutorial video: https://vimeo.com/185732981

For more about Edge Case Research and how to subscribe to our video training channel, please see this Blog posting.

Embedded System Software Quality: Why is it so often terrible? What can we do about it?

I had a great time meeting old friends and new folks at ISSRE 2016.

Here are slides from my keynote address:

Embedded System Software Quality:
Why is it so often terrible? What can we do about it?

Failures of embedded system software increasingly make the news. Everyday products we rely upon are suffering from safety issues, security issues, and just plain bugs. While perfection is unrealistic, surely we can improve this situation.  Two key ideas apply: (1) embedded products often aren’t created by computer specialists, and (2) teaching application domain specialists just how to code is more of a problem than a solution.

• One-page extended abstract
• Presentation slides

Phil Koopman's ISSRE 2016 Keynote from edgecaseresearch

Security Plan Tutorial

Here's a preview video on creating a Security Plan.  There is also a full version of this video available for free from the Edge Case Research video library (see below for details).

You might also find these pointers useful:

• MITRE Commone Weakness Enumeration (security)

Embedded System Security Plan Preview [ECR].

Full tutorial video: https://vimeo.com/185255673

For more about Edge Case Research and how to subscribe to our video training channel, please see this Blog posting.

Peer Review Tutorial

Here's a preview video on Peer Review (about 1 minute of content, plus leader/trailer stuff).  There is also a full version of this video available for free from the Edge Case Research video library (see below for details).

Notes:

• Peer review finds half the defects for 10% of the project cost. (Blog)
• But they only work if you actually do the reviews! (Blog)
• If you're finding more than 50% of your defects in test instead of peer review, then your peer reviews are broken. It's as simple as that. (Blog)
• Here's a peer review checklist to get you started. (Blog) You should customize it to your needs.

Peer Review Tutorial Overview [ECR].

Full tutorial video: https://vimeo.com/181433327

For more about Edge Case Research and how to subscribe to our video training channel, please see this Blog posting.

Training Video Series

Summary: My startup company is launching a series of training videos.  Here's an overview.

-------------------------
(This blog posting is an ad for my startup company ... but it also has links to free training videos!)

• Here's a page with a list of the currently available videos

Edge Case Research:

I have a startup company that has built a brisk business in design reviews, robustness testing, and software safety.  We're building on the 20 years and 200 design reviews I've done working with industry partners on a variety of embedded systems. We're also building on my long collaboration with my co-founder Mike Wagner and others at the National Robotics Engineering Center doing autonomy validation and safety.

We do a lot of work with autonomous systems (robots, self-driving cars), but also with consumer electronics and industrial controls. In general the idea is that we have a dedicated team of embedded system experts who can help companies with both the technical aspects of their product and their software development processes. Our strengths are:

• Identifying risk areas in embedded products
• Best-practice assessments & technical practice benchmarking across dozens of risk areas that have been a problem for other project teams
• Autonomous system safety (self-driving vehicles and other robots, but also non-robot systems)
• Robustness testing and improvement
• Hands-on training based on your current project in both technology and just-the-right-weight software development process

If we can help you with your embedded product just let us know!

Free Training Videos:

One of the things we have found is that there are a number of common areas in which our customers (and probably many others) could use some help with in terms of updating technical and process skills.  Thus, we're launching a video training series to help with the topics we most commonly see as we review projects.

To access the full videos for free, visit our video library page here.  If this is successful we'll add more videos over time, possibly requiring registration and/or a subscription for the full library.  But the ones there now are free, and I expect that these particular videos will stay free indefinitely.  Please respect our copyright and substantial investment in creating them by pointing people there to view them instead of trying to download the full length videos.

We also have a YouTube channel with just the previews that you can subscribe to if you want notification of new videos as they come out.

Hope you enjoy these!