Software Dependability under Crisis Conditions
Kim Weyns and Per Runeson
The 17th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE 2006) -- Government Track
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, 7-10 November 2006
Abstract
Crises like earthquakes, storms, or terrorist attacks can disturb the normal workings of society and at the same time put an increased stress on the technical systems society depends on in a time of crisis. In the aftermath of such a crisis, municipalities, regional governments and government agencies have an important role in the relief and recovery efforts. During the last decade government has become more and more dependent on software systems, both for everyday tasks and for crisis response. For these tasks they often depend on both specially designed critical systems and normal commercial systems. In this arena a short period of inactivity is sometimes acceptable under normal working conditions, but absolutely unacceptable during crisis conditions. This need for high availability during extreme conditions poses special requirements on the dependability of their IT systems. A crisis can stress an IT system in unexpected ways, and our dependence on IT systems in crises situations recommends a need for more research on practical techniques to evaluate the reliability of software systems in such situations.