Code of Practice and Competencies for ISAs

Independent safety assessment is widely used as a means of obtaining assurance of safety for safety related systems. Experience of both Independent Safety Assessors (ISAs) and users of ISAs, together with growing appreciation of the responsibilities and potential liabilities of ISAs, suggested that there would be safety assurance and other benefits from identifying good practice for ISAs. A voluntary Code of Practice for Independent Safety Assessors (ISAs), together with a supporting Competency Framework for ISAs, has therefore been developed by the ISA Working Group of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the British Computer Society (BCS).

The Code of Practice consists of ten requirements and associated amplification and guidance. They address both technical and non-technical aspects of ISA work. The competence requirement is developed in the Competency Framework for ISAs. Both the Code of Practice and the Competency Framework are intended to be practical tools appropriate for wide adoption across the many technical disci-plines and domains in which ISAs work. The ISA Working Group encourages their pragmatic use to help establish good practice in ISA work and discourages their use as checklists for formal compliance.

This paper describes the scope and content of the Code of Practice and Compe-tency Framework together with examples of how they can be used by users and employers of ISAs as well as by ISAs themselves.