TC 56 – Dependability (original) (raw)
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Dependability is fundamental to the performance of systems and services and impacts both all types of organizations and society in general.
Our Mission
- To promote the importance of dependability
- To provide an integrated view of the field of dependability and its application
- To develop and maintain standards for the benefit of all dependability users, operators and designers
Who We Are?
We are IEC TC 56: Dependability, a technical committee of the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), with experts from across the world to ensure our dependability standards contain the latest techniques and processes to benefit both users and producers. Our committee has been in existence since 1967 and, even though it was first set up to address reliability of electrical and electronic equipment, it is now recognized by ISO as applying to all types of products, components, equipment and systems. See the TC 56 dashboard on the IEC website for more information on what the committee does and the approximately 60 standards that are available.
What is dependability?
Dependability management coordinates reliability, maintainability, supportability, availability and other related aspects such as performance, risk and cost to realize more value for the products and services to which it is applied. A more extensive description of dependability is found here. Further definitions of terms related to dependability are described in IEV 60050-192 and can also be found online (See Menu section on Definitions).
Why is dependability important?
Our society is very dependent on technology and integrated systems to function as expected. Dependability adds crucial aspects to all kinds of products, systems and equipment to enable these to function without failure over their life cycle. This starts during design and continues into their use until they are retired.
Implementing dependability
Dependability takes a cradle to grave approach over the complete life cycle. It is important to specify dependability requirements along with other requirements with full consideration of dependability attributes followed by activities such as testing for reliability, quality manufacturing, proper operation and necessary maintenance. See this page for a more extensive explanation of how dependability is achieved over the life cycle.
Who needs to be involved?
Assurance of dependability means that many people are involved in dependability activities. They are usually referred to as stakeholders where a stakeholder is anyone who can affect or is affected by an organization’s actions, objectives or policies. See here for a description of typical stakeholders.