04 August 2026
David Muse, Chief Technical Officer looks back on how our most recent safety audit played out.
A successful SIL 2 safety audit is never the achievement of one individual. It reflects the discipline, preparation and collective understanding of the whole engineering team. I recently had the privilege of leading our team through an audit conducted by an external Software Assessor, covering two separate safety-critical programmes across ASDO, CSDE and DCO.
The team brought together a wide range of experience. At its core were engineers who had supported previous safety audits and understood the level of evidence, traceability and technical scrutiny involved. Alongside them were newer members of the team experiencing an independent safety audit for the first time.
It was particularly rewarding to see those newer engineers engage confidently with the process and make valuable contributions throughout the audit.
A safety audit is about much more than presenting documents. The team must be able to demonstrate that requirements are understood, risks are controlled, decisions are justified and the implementation is supported by clear, consistent and traceable evidence.
That requires engineers to understand not only what has been developed, but why it has been developed in that way and how the complete lifecycle supports the safety argument.
The experienced members of the team provided guidance and continuity, while the newer members brought fresh perspectives and demonstrated how effectively knowledge and responsibility had been shared across the projects.
I am extremely proud of how the whole team represented their work and supported one another throughout the assessment.
Achieving a successful outcome across multiple SIL 2 projects is an important milestone, but seeing the next generation of engineers develop the confidence and capability to contribute meaningfully to safety assurance was equally valuable.
Strong safety engineering depends on robust processes and independent scrutiny. Most importantly, however, it depends on people who understand, challenge and take ownership of the systems they develop.