Knowledge Management in Safety-Critical Systems Analysis

Abstract

Knowledge management in the design of safety-critical systems addresses the question of how designers can share, capitalize, and reuse knowledge in an effective and reliable way. Knowledge management is situated in groups, organizations, and communities, playing different roles in the design process. Design of safety-critical systems has specific properties, such as dealing with complexity, traceability, maturity of knowledge, interaction between experts, awareness of the status of information, and trust in knowledge. Documentation is of crucial importance in design processes, ensuring that these properties are taken care of in a proper and reliable way. However, writing is not an easy task for engineers, and support is needed. Several knowledge management solutions, both tools and organizational setups, are available to support design work, such as active notification of changes, personal and team workspaces, active design documents and knowledge portal solutions.