exida explains Blog

Click here to read Part 1

Now that you know the step-by-step process of product certification, now let’s take a look at the actual information on the certificate. 

In the left panel (gray background) you will find an exida certification logo. …

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How many development teams have heard those few, innocent words uttered from Marketing/Management toward the end of the development phase of a project, only to have their schedule blown out of the water?  The phase of development into which the change is introduced determines the size of the concentric…

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Last week you learned about what exactly a module is, and examples of different types of modules. Now we will move on to interfaces, the need for module testing, and code coverage requirements.

An interface, such as the 3D printer’s communication interface, or the format of the 3D data…

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The Test Plan

Assessment requires evidence that module tests are designed properly, run properly, and have been successfully run. Documented test results are also required.  In order to meet these requirements it is generally a good idea to document a test plan for each module.  Information that applies…

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Part 3 covered the design of tests, resulting in one or more Module Test Plans.  To execute a test plan, one would start with the test plan and a test results template (which could be a copy of the test plan as indicated previously), document the general test information…

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3D printers are cool!  I watched a TED talk this past year about them.  I know they have been around for over 30 years, but I still think they’re cool.  As I watched, I thought of the wheel for my dishwasher’s roll-out rack, which had…

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I get an email that includes a “certificate” of some sort most every week.  The sender asks “Can I accept this certificate?”  Or the sender might ask “Are these failure rates valid for the process industries?” 

At exida we have some specific criteria we use when performing third party…

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Have a formal process for tracking, recording, and classifying field shipments and failure returns.

If your product was designed well in the first place, even if strict adherence to IEC 61508 was not followed, your field failure rate should be pretty low.

Using Proven-In-Use (PIU) methodology will…

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While channel surfing the TV this weekend, I happened to stop on an old show called “My Mother The Car.”  (Ok, I’m dating myself, but it was filmed in color, as opposed to some other favorite old shows still in black-and-white).  The fictional car, a 1928 Porter built for…

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Most software developers are familiar with the need for and benefits of change control. Usually change control means one thing to a software developer and that is 'commits' to a source code revision control system. Not only do small and regular commits provide significant advantages to large teams of…

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IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 are known as “performance” based standards.  Specific design rules, as found in “prescriptive” standards, are not included, allowing for innovation and new technology, as well as creativity and advancement.  However, it does imply that a certain level of competency is required.

Others would strongly…

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Your organization gets information, feedback, and requests from customers all the time.  It’s up to you to do some preliminary analysis and determine what the customer really wants.  Do they want to buy something?  Do they want to complain about something?  Do they have a need for which no…

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At exida we have studied hundreds of sets of field failure data from various sources.  Some of these data sets have indicated differences in failure rates by two orders of magnitude for the same product type!  After tracing through the data collection process for many of these field failure data sets,…

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In today’s modern society there is an increasing demand for “safer” products/systems, which have to meet increasingly demanding standards.  The management of “risk” is a major factor in ensuring that a product/system can meet its design objectives, as well as satisfying the required standards and, even more importantly, meeting…

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If you’ve got lots of proven field history for a product, you should be able to claim that good work and get your product certified for use in functional safety applications.  It is certainly still a challenge, but it is easier than certifying a new product.  The…

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How often do Managers see training budgets being cut, or personnel becoming blasé about training in general?  Isn’t it the norm that annual performance reviews involve reviewing training requirements?  Realistically, how often do these training requirements get ignored and/or forgotten about during the year?  The answer, I’m afraid, is…

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Most of you know that exida gathers field failure data from many sources including manufacturers’ warranty return data and end user maintenance/failure records.  At this point we have nearly 100 billion unit operating hours of data.  This is probably the largest process industry data set in the world.  And…

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*The “Just Do It” approach was previously referenced in the blog entry Seat-of-your-Pants Software?

If used early in the development lifecycle, a “just do it” approach could help marketing determine the look-and-feel of an application program with a complex user interface.  Early software prototyping on a PC…

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