Code Coverage for Safety-Critical Programs

This white paper summarizes the different implications and considerations surrounding code coverage for safety-critical programs, along with code coverage requirements mandated by four major standards governing safety-critical software in various industry contexts. First, we discuss the emergence of safety-critical software as part of modern systems. Next, we define code coverage analysis, how it works, and why it is used as a pre-requisite for achieving certification. Third, we define the most encountered coverage metrics in software testing, against which test coverage can be measured. We describe their advantages and disadvantages in the context of quality assurance, and finally, state their relevance to the four safety standards.