Schnieder, E.:
Qualitative and quantitative description of reliability characteristics in availability/safety diagrams.
In: Schnieder, E., Hrsg.: International Workshop on Software Specification of Safety Relevant Transportation Control Tasks, S. 1-10, Düsseldorf, 2003. VDI Verlag.
Availability and safety are universal characteristics of technical systems that have a decisive influence on the system configuration, the procedures and equipment used, as well as the system operation. To date it has, however, not been possible to represent these characteristics in a transparent and integrated form. Starting from a qualitative classification of system states that have an influence on system dependability, i.e. from completely correct operation to the damage state, this paper proposes an availability/safety diagram that provides for an integrated system representation. Simple scaling even allow the orthogonal diagram coordinates availability and hazard to be used for quantitative positioning. This approach, in addition, allows different system concepts and performance characteristics to be compared.