Standards Development

Scope

1.1 This part of the IEC 61508 series:

a)      is intended to be utilized only after a thorough understanding of, and in conjunction with, the requirements of IEC 61508-1 and IEC 61508-2;

b)      applies to any software forming part of a safety-related system or used to develop a safety-related system within the scope of IEC 61508-1 and IEC 61508-2. Such software is termed safety-related software (including operating systems, system software, software in communication networks, human-computer interface functions, and firmware as well as application software);

c)      provides specific requirements applicable to support tools used to develop and configure a safety-related system within the scope of IEC 61508-1 and IEC 61508-2;

d)      requires that the software safety functions and their systematic capability are specified;

NOTE 1 If this has already been done as part of the specification of the E/E/PE safety-related systems (see 7.2 of IEC 61508-2), then it does not have to be repeated in this part.

NOTE 2 Specifying the software safety functions and their systematic capability is an iterative procedure; see Figure 5  and  Figure 6.

NOTE 3 See IEC 61508-1 Clause 5 and IEC 61508-1 Annex A for documentation structure. The documentation structure can be organised to take account of company procedures, and of the working practices of specific application sectors.

NOTE 4  See IEC 61508-4 3.5.8 for definition of the term "systematic capability".

e)      establishes requirements for safety lifecycle phases and activities which shall be applied during the design and development of the safety-related software (the software safety lifecycle model). These requirements include the application of measures and techniques, which are graded against the required systematic capability, for the avoidance of and control of faults and failures in the software;

f)       provides requirements for information relating to the software aspects of system safety validation to be passed to the organisation carrying out the E/E/PE system integration;

g)      provides requirements for the preparation of information and procedures concerning software needed by the user for the operation and maintenance of the E/E/PE safety-related system;

h)      provides requirements to be met by the organisation carrying out modifications to safety-related software;

i)        provides, in conjunction with IEC 61508-1 and IEC 61508-2, requirements for support tools such as development and design tools, language translators, testing and debugging tools, configuration management tools;

NOTE 5  Figure 5 shows the relationship between IEC 61508-2 and this document.

j)        Not used;

k)      Does apply to software algorithmssoftware technology class I (see definition in IEC 61508-4 Clause 3.2.14); software technology class II and III (see definitions in IEC 61508-4, Clause 3.2.15 and Clause 3.2 16)

NOTE  6 The software algorithms classes relate to the generically used term “artificial intelligence” as defined in ISO/IEC 22989.

NOTE  7 Refer to ISO/IEC TR 5469:2024 and ISO/IEC TS 22440 series for further details.

1.2 This document is a basic safety publication to be used in conjunction with the other parts of IEC 61508 for use by end users to evaluate functional safety applications, or by technical committees in the preparation of standards in accordance with the principles contained in IEC Guide 104 and ISO/IEC Guide 51.  This document does not apply in the context of low complexity E/E/PE safety-related systems (see IEC 61508-4 3.4.3).

1.3 One of the responsibilities of a technical committee is, wherever applicable, to make use of basic safety publications in the preparation of its publications. In this context, the requirements, test methods or test conditions of this basic safety publication will not apply unless specifically referred to or included in the publications prepared by those technical committees.

1.4 Figure 1 shows the overall framework of the IEC 61508 series and indicates the role that IEC 61508-3 plays in the achievement of functional safety for E/E/PE safety-related systems. Figure 2 shows the overall safety lifecycle specified in the IEC 61508 series, with this document addressing part of box 10.Figure 1 – Overall framework of the IEC 61508 series

Please see draft for Figure 2 – Overall E/E/PE system safety lifecycle