DOE Order O 414.1B, Quality
Assurance, was revised to include Attachment
5 addressing SQA requirements for nuclear
safety applications at DOE nuclear
facilities. The revised Order,
DOE O 414.1C was issued June 17, 2005.
This Order and its associated Guide for
safety software,
DOE G 414.1-4, Safety Software Guide for
use with 10 CFR 830 Subpart A, Quality
Assurance Requirements, are available
through the DOE Directives Web site at
http://www.directives.doe.gov/
The Order identifies 10
software quality work activities that are to
be performed using the graded approach
specified in the Order. These 10 work
activities are: (1) software project
management, (2) software risk management,
(3) software configuration management, (4)
procurement and vendor management, (5)
software requirements identification and
management, (6) software design and
implementation, (7) software safety design,
(8) verification and validation, (9) problem
reporting and corrective action, and (10)
training of personnel in the design,
development, use and evaluation of safety
software. These 10 work activities were
consolidated from practices and activities
identified in several well known consensus
standards and federal requirements,
including ASME NQA-1-2000. ASME NQA-1-2000,
Quality Assurance Requirements for Nuclear
Facility Applications, or other national
or international consensus standards that
provide an equivalent level of quality
assurance requirements as NQA-1-2000, must
be used to develop processes and implement
the 10 software quality work activities. The
standards used must be specified by the user
and approved by DOE.
DOE Guide G 414.1-4 provides
acceptable implementation strategies and
appropriate standards for the 10 software
quality work activities. This new guide
incorporates practices from appropriate
existing national/international standards
and processes currently in use at DOE
facilities (ref.
site specific standards and guides). The
Guide describes how the quality work
activities may be implemented using a graded
approach to satisfy the Order requirements.
The grading guidance identifies
subactivities that can be implemented at
varying levels of rigor to align with the
grading level (Level A, B or C) for the
specific safety software application. The
grading level is based upon the impact on
safety and the safety software type (e.g.,
custom developed, configurable, or
acquired).
The Guide contains two key
appendices: Appendix B, Procedure for Adding
or Revising Software to, or Deleting from
the DOE Safety Software Central Registry and
Appendix F, DOE O 414.1C Criteria Review and
Approach Document. These appendices have
been updated to reflect the 10 work
activities in the Order. The
assessment/evaluation criteria and
information collected during evaluations of
proposed Central Registry codes or during
assessments of safety software are based
upon the 10 work activities and their
sub-activities in the Guide.
Questions on Software Quality
Assurance Requirements & Guidance can be
directed to
Subir
Sen.
Questions on Quality
Assurance Directives & Guidance can
be directed to
Colette Broussard.
This page was last updated on March 11, 2009