Software systems: design for maintenance railway applications

From the earliest days of computing, railways have made use of management information systems based on software. With the recent rapid growth of microprocessor applications, however, software has spread into areas previously untouched. Remote control systems and signalling applications such as track circuits and interlockings have all become microprocessor based. Even locomotives now contain software. This trend means that it is becoming increasingly important for railways to be able to control the development and application of software including the incorporation of changes. Here, the authors present a brief review of a number of emerging techniques which promise to make the task of software maintenance easier, and more productive