Good practices for writing safety requirements

The new Implementing Rule (EU) No. 2017/373, known as IR ATM/ANS, has incorporated all the principles promoted by current system engineering standards into its regulatory requirements. Indeed, these standards aiming to control the development of complex systems, these approaches are perfectly suited to develop complex socio-technical systems such as functional systems of air traffic control.

By taking all the codes of system engineering, the IR ATM/ANS places the quality of requirements as the cornerstone of the argument for safety or safety support assessments.

This guide aims to accompany this evolution by compiling some good practices in terms of writing requirements. The purpose of these guidelines is to facilitate the management of requirements, to ensure that they are properly flown down to the design of a new system or as part of a change, and to ensure that they are effective and thoroughly verified.

The different types of requirements are addressed as well as their properties and appropriate verification methods. Some writing rules are also proposed.

This guide is intended for any person or organization responsible for developing safety or safety support assessments as well as anyone involved in the specification of socio-technical systems.