Systematic construction of goal indicator trees for indicator-based dependability inspections

We are surrounded by ever more systems with high dependability requirements, such as driving assistance systems from the automotive domain or life-supporting systems from the medical domain. The increasing complexity of these systems makes it more difficult not only to develop them, but also to perform quality assurance on them. Hence, in order to improve their quality, respectively reduce the potential harm associated with these systems, systematic quality assurance should be performed. In this paper, the authors present so-called Goal Indicator Trees (GITs), which support inspectors in performing an inspection, thereby assuring the quality of certain artifacts and consequently improving the quality of the overall system. The focus of this paper is the development of the GITs. The approach is explained and demonstrated with respect to the quality property safety, but it can be generalized to further quality properties.