systemssafetyrequirements

System safety requirements are a set of conditions and criteria intended to prevent harm and minimize risk within a system and its lifecycle. They define safety objectives, constraints, and measurable criteria that the system must satisfy to avoid hazards or mitigate their consequences. The term is commonly written as system safety requirements; some documents concatenate it as systemssafetyrequirements.

These requirements originate from hazard analysis and risk assessment conducted early in a project. They guide both architectural choices and detailed design, specifying functional safety requirements, safe states, fail-safe behavior, fault tolerance, and limits under abnormal conditions. They require traceability from the identified hazards through to design, implementation, testing, and verification, and from there to safety validation.

Lifecycle and scope: system safety requirements cover the full lifecycle of a system, including concept, development, integration, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning. They influence system architecture, interfaces, redundancy, and safety-critical software and hardware, as well as recovery mechanisms and response to failures. In modern practice, safety considerations are increasingly integrated with security and resilience requirements.

Standards and assurance: many industries rely on established standards to define and assess system safety requirements, such as MIL-STD-882, IEC 61508, ISO 26262, DO-178C, and ISO 14971. A safety case or life-cycle assurance framework often accompanies the requirements, providing structured evidence that safety objectives are met through design, verification, and validation activities.

Applications and challenges: system safety requirements are applied in aerospace, automotive, medical devices, and industrial automation. Challenges include balancing safety with cost and schedule, maintaining traceability across complex systems, and adapting to evolving threats and technologies.