[SystemSafety] [External] Re: Post Office Horizon System
Peter Bernard Ladkin
ladkin at causalis.com
Wed Apr 28 19:24:29 CEST 2021
Steve,
I am certainly not going to suggest that many software functional requirements could be more
carefully specified than they are, and, like you, I believe that in many software developments such
precise requirements specification can help enormously.
Suppose you were writing software to look at CRT scans of people's hearts, and identify myocarditis.
There is (a) a software component which maps pixels to anatomical objects
+ geometry, followed by
(b) a software interpretive component which identifies certain kinds of anomalies in the picture
overlaid with the anatomy derived from (a).
There are two related criteria for the success of this software. The main
criterion is that the
subject really does have myocarditis. The second criterion is that the software judgement agrees
with the judgement of an experienced physician that the subject has myocarditis. Most often, it is
the second criterion which is used to determine success, since the first can only be determined with
invasive and medically undesirable procedures.
Tasks (a) and (b) are usually undertaken a DLNN. How would you go about writing a requirements
specification for this software? How would you go about validating the software against the
requirements specification?
PBL
Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Bielefeld, Germany
ClaireTheWhiteRabbit RIP
Tel+msg +49 (0)521 880 7319 www.rvs-bi.de
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