Validas — Tool and Library Qualification

How can you tell if the tool you are using has been qualified? Tune in to our third bonus question episode with Dr. Oscar Slotosch to find out how this complicated question can have a simple answer. To find out more about the reliability of your tools, join us in Question 04: Do famous tools need to be qualified? and Question 07: What is a growing QKit? , or listen to our first full-length episode...

In this week’s episode, Dr. Oscar Slotosch explores the importance of the Tool Safety Manual — an essential part of qualification documentation and the only resource the end user has to help them use a tool safely. Learn how tool safety manuals are created and how you can use them responsibly, but also what it is that makes a tool safety manual good. At the end of this episode, Oscar announces a s...

Even though non-deterministic compilers may not be ideal for use in a safety-relevant project, they can still be qualified. Our new question episode goes beyond the usual topics of compiler qualification and answers the question of whether — and how — non-deterministic compilers can be qualified. For a detailed discussion on compiler qualification, join us in Episode 27: Compiler Qualification , o...

Did ISO 26262 abolish tool qualification in its second edition? In our first bonus episode, Dr. Oscar Slotosch explains why the answer is quite to the contrary — the second edition of ISO 26262 has put an even stronger emphasis on tool qualification. To learn more about ISO 26262 and other safety standards, listen to our full-length episodes, Episode 33: ISO 26262 , Episode 36: Safety Element out...

Unlike tools, libraries are elements in software development that get directly used in a finished product — therefore, their reliability and safety is paramount. In this episode Dr. Oscar Slotosch introduces you to the topic of library qualification and explains what makes it so crucial. Join us to learn how to safely use publicly available libraries, how Validas qualifies libraries, which special...

What is a good qualification and how can you recognize it? In this episode Dr. Oscar Slotosch shares his experience and insights on what makes a QKit good — and what makes it bad. Does it save you time and money, or does it sow doubt in your users? Join us and learn how to recognize the crucial elements of a good, reliable qualification. To learn how effective qualification can make your safety-re...

Creating and maintaining a reliable set of qualification documents is one of the most important tasks of a tool provider or user. In this episode we delve into the topic of documentation, list the mandatory and recommended documents that should be included in every qualification, and discuss how different types of qualification require different approaches in documentation. Oscar also includes a f...

This episode features an interview with Claudio Gregorio, a functional safety expert working at TÜV SÜD — a leading independent technical service provider. To understand Claudio’s role and duties in the assessment and certification of software components, Dr. Oscar Slotosch puts himself in the shoes of a tool provider and finds out the answers to all his burning questions on certificates, safety m...

This week’s episode is an introduction to qualification test strategies — join Dr. Oscar Slotosch to learn about qualification testing and how it differs from quality testing, how a test strategy is designed, and what principles should be followed when deciding how many test cases to run. In this episode we will also help you determine the exact number of test cases required for an efficient quali...

The Tool Chain Analyzer (TCA) is a crucial part of Validas’s framework — it is used to model complex tool chain features and their dependencies, with the ultimate goal of making your qualification project as simple and as automated as possible. In this week’s episode, Dr. Oscar Slotosch explains why the way you model your tool chain matters and how the TCA is usually used for safety-relevant proje...

Have you been thinking about creating a tool qualification roadmap for your own software? It all starts with the tool qualification workshop! This week, Dr. Oscar Slotosch explains what you can expect at a workshop: who should participate, what topics are covered, how long it takes, and what it will result in. For a detailed discussion of the tool qualification roadmap, listen to our previous epis...

In this week’s episode, Dr. Oscar Slotosch takes us on a journey through the tool qualification roadmap — where do you start when you want to ensure your software is safe to use, which parts of the project are crucial, and how does Validas approach the safety analysis of new software? Learn all that and much more by joining us through the Tool and Library Qualification podcast! In our next episode...

In this episode we tackle TD, or tool detection, the process of determining how likely it is that potential errors in software tools will be detected. Tune in to learn how TD is used to reach a tool confidence level (TCL), the details of how it is determined, whose responsibility it is to investigate TD levels, and why some of these levels might lead to more reliable software than others. To learn...

When using a software tool or compiler in a safety-relevant project, it’s important to be confident in its results — using the ISO 26262 safety standard, we call this reliability the tool confidence level (TCL). In this episode, Oscar explains how TCL classes are determined and how they affect the tool usage, why you wouldn’t want the lowest TCL for your product, and where TCL classification might...

After our Whit Monday break, this week we tackle the hefty topic of safety standards! Join Dr. Oscar Slotosch as he leads you through the usage of safety standards and their application to the development of different types of software, as well as the difficult questions of what is an acceptable risk and how we should think about the safety of new technologies. In Episode 29: Safety Compliance , w...

Tool users, tool providers, safety experts, and developers — what role do they have in the qualification processes and whose responsibility is it to ensure a tool is safe? If you’ve ever been puzzled by this nomenclature, join us in this week’s episode, in which Dr. Oscar Slotosch breaks down the crucial roles involved in qualification and shares his insights on their importance. To see the big pi...

Join us in this week’s episode to learn about all the qualification processes necessary for a good tool or library qualification. Dr. Oscar Slotosch discusses the ins and outs of a standard qualification, the preparation that comes before qualification, and how building QKits just might increase the quality of your projects! In our next episode, Episode 05: Qualification Roles , we discuss the res...

In our third episode, Dr. Oscar Slotosch explains why tools need to be classified before they are qualified, where the classification rules are determined, and which class you really want your tools to be in. Join us to learn how to perform a classification, how to wrangle error mitigations, and why classes in avionics hold extra weight! For a detail look at how smart classification affects the sa...

In our second episode, we set the stage and define all the topics crucial in the business of qualification: tools, libraries, safety standards, classification, and qualification itself. What methods can you use to claim a tool or library is safe and where do the most obscure problems always pop up? Join us to find out! For an in-depth look at these important topics, listen to some of our later epi...

In our first podcast episode, we introduce the topic of tool qualification — the main area of expertise of both Validas and our host, Dr. Oscar Slotosch. Why do we qualify tools, when did we start paying attention to tool safety, and how difficult of a task is it to ensure human life isn’t put in danger by unreliable software? Learn about all that and much more in our Tool and Library Qualificatio...

As experts in the creation of safe software systems, in this podcast hosted by Dr. Oscar Slotosch we answer all the questions in the field of tool and library qualification. Each episode guides you through a crucial topic via discussions, interpretations, and examples given by safety professionals in Validas and beyond, and there’s something for everyone — from specialists to beginners! Our podcas...