Generating Assurance Cases Using Workflow(+) Models

The increasing complexity and scale of safety-critical systems makes it challenging to perform necessary safety analyses and document them convincingly in an assurance case. In previous work we introduced Workflow(+), a model-based framework for modelling the processes and work products in both the development and safety assurance life cycles. WF+ metamodels not only serve as templates that guide the development of a safe system, they also facilitate generation of an assurance case. In this paper, we explain the fundamentals of generating assurance cases from WF+ models as well as the advantages of doing this. We also discuss an initial evaluation of the application of WF+ in practice.