Consultancy & Advisory Services

CSR staff consult widely in the areas of software engineering, reliability and safety, software testing, fault tolerence and decision support.  We work with various advisory and standards committees and governmental bodies. Details can be found in the pages of the individual staff members. Some examples:

• ERTMS: CSR completed a study into the security of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) that was commissioned on behalf of the UK railway industry.
• DSTL: CSR produced a report for DSTL (Defence Science Technology Laboratory) titled "Evaluating the resilience and security of boundaryless, evolving socio-technical Systems of Systems". More details of this project can be found here while the report can be downloaded from here.
• Study Group on the Safety of Operational Computer Systems: This Study Group was set up in 1995 by the U.K. Health and Safety Commission's Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee (NuSAC), under the chairmanship of CSR's Prof. Bev Littlewood (who was a member of NuSAC) to advise on the use of software-based safety-critical systems in the nuclear industry. It reported to the HSC in late 1998, and published a report entitled "The use of computers in safety-critical applications" that is available from the HSE's web site. The report has an extensive review of the problems and advantages in using computer systems in safety roles, which is accessible to a 'lay' reader, as well as more specialist technical advice and recommendations.
• Guidance on statistical testing of software: CSR (acting as a consultant to Intecs Sistemi S.p.A.) produced for the European Space Agency a guideline document for the statistical testing of software, intended by the agency as a  means for  introducing statistical testing in the software life cycle for space projects. For further information contact Prof. Lorenzo Strigini.