If you were a user of a safety-critical embedded system and discovered that the designers had not followed best practices and safety standards in the design of the device, how worried would you be? I know I would be very concerned, and according to BarrGroup’s recent annual embedded systems safety survey, we all need to be concerned.
BarrGroup has just completed an analysis of data from 2,400 respondents, all engineers currently designing embedded devices. Through this sample of engineers from around the world (46% from North America and 33% from Europe), we are pleased to gain insights into their design philosophies and practices, and their connection to security. However, the survey results also highlight an urgent issue that needs to be addressed—everyone should pause and reflect.
The survey results showed that 22% of respondents said that the devices they are currently designing are related to personal safety—is that surprising? But when we asked them what the worst-case scenario would be if their devices malfunctioned, more than 500 respondents said it could cause one or more deaths! Most of these respondents work in the industrial automation, medical device, automotive, and aerospace industries.
It is not surprising that the devices manufactured by those industries are related to safety, but through this large-scale survey, we wanted to know whether these design engineers followed safety standards and best practices for reliability and maintainability. Professional organizations and industry groups, including IEC, FDA, FAA, NHTSA, SAE, IEEE, and MISRA, have established standards for engineering design safety, and we originally expected that the respondents would have a near 100% affirmative response.
Unfortunately, this is not the case at all! Only 67% of respondents said their designs followed safety standards, while 22% said they did not, and 11% were even unsure whether their designs adhered to safety standards. This means that one in three safety-critical device designs may have vulnerabilities in safety, reliability, or quality that have not been properly addressed or reviewed, which is truly worrying.
