A GENERIC BLOCKCHAIN PROCESS REFERENCE MODEL FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT IN SAFETY CRITICAL DOMAINS

2024-1-26
Baysal, Merve Vildan
In recent years, blockchain technology has garnered significant interest and shown promises in various safety critical domains such as health, automotive, and energy. In safety critical domains, any failure or malfunction of a system or technology could potentially result in significant harm, injury, or damage to the environment. Therefore, ensuring the safety, reliability, and correctness of operations within these domains is crucial and often subject to strict regulations, standards, and rigorous testing procedures. Although these domains are highly regulated, there are currently no studies presenting the essential blockchain processes, practices, and development guidelines for ensuring compliance with related regulations. To resolve this deficiency, this study introduces a comprehensive Blockchain dApp Process Reference Model (BDRM) tailored for health, energy, automotive domains. BDRM was developed through a systematic review of both formal and informal literature, leveraging expert insights to define precise processes and practices. Design science research was applied during the development of the model. The model integrates the requirements of the ISO/IEC 12207 alongside health-focused standards (i.e. IEC 62304, IEC 82304, ISO 14971) automotive-specific standards (i.e. ASPICE, ISO 26262), and energy domain-related standards (i.e IEC 61508) to ensure regulatory compliance. Comprising 15 processes and 68 practices, its applicability was confirmed through multiple case studies. The proposed BDRM would provide benefit to developers, researchers, and decision-makers by providing a valuable resource for the development of blockchain-based applications in safety critical domains.
Citation Formats
M. V. Baysal, “A GENERIC BLOCKCHAIN PROCESS REFERENCE MODEL FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT IN SAFETY CRITICAL DOMAINS,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2024.