A looming fault tolerance software crisis?

Abstract

Experience suggests that it is edifying to talk about software crises at NATO workshops. It is argued in this position paper that proper engineering of fault tolerance software has not been getting the attention it deserves. The paper outlines the difficulties in building fault tolerant systems and describes the challenges software fault tolerance is facing. The solution being advocated is to place a special emphasis on fault tolerance software engineering which would provide a set of methods, techniques, models and tools that would exactly fit application domains, fault assumptions and system requirements and support disciplined and rigorous fault tolerance throughout all phases of the life cycle. The paper finishes with an outline of some directions of work requiring special focused efforts from the R&D community.