Moving towards goal-based safety management

In virtually all safety-critical industries the operators of systems have to demonstrate a systematic and thorough consideration of safety. This is generally done through the application of safety standards as part of the development of safety critical systems. Many safety assurance standards (like EN50126 (1999), IEC 61508 (1995), DEF (Aust) 5679) (1998) are very prescriptive. They require specific techniques, approaches or measures to be applied to achieve the safety objective without allowing the users to select a suite of techniques and measures best suited for their application and development environment. The application of prescriptive techniques can work well for some systems but can be a hindrance for emerging technologies. There has therefore been an increasing trend in many industries to demonstrate safety by assuring certain goals have been achieved, rather than simply following prescriptive standards. Goal-based safety standards are now a reality and applied in the medical industry and defence. This paper will describe the pros and cons of prescriptive and goal-based standards, and make recommendations for the evolution of future safety standards.