All checklists in the 6.xx series will be converted to the PAT format for consistency. The 6.xx numbering will be retired after the conversion is complete and the new Topics page is published. 


This tab contains PAT (Process Asset Templates) checklists that can be used by software engineering personnel as well as software assurance and safety personnel. This collection contains checklists to:

  1. aid in designing safety-critical modules,
  2. aid in the development of requirements for safety-critical systems, 
  3. aid in selecting operating systems and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software,  and
  4. focus on programming practices for specific languages as well as general programming practices.

These checklists can be used by developers as guidance for coding or for peer review checklists as well as by assurance and safety personnel to check that best practices have been followed. Although many of these checklists are designed for use with safety-critical software, a majority of the practices are applicable for all software.

Checklists are organized into categories. Some checklists may appear in more than one category: 

Safety Checklists and Safety Analysis Checklists

PAT-006 - Design Practices for Safety  - Derived from a paper given at a talk to the Forth Interest Group (UK) in London during May 1992.  Paul E.  Bennett. Updated by NASA Software Safety Guidebook Team, 10/21/2020.  (Formerly 6.1 - Design for Safety Checklist)

PAT-007 - Checklist for General Software Safety Requirements - General Software Safety Requirements, Combined list was generated from appendices in NASA Safety Guidebook (NASA-GB-8719.13). Updated by NASA Software Safety Guidebook Team in 2/2021 (Formerly 6.2 - Checklist for General Software Safety Requirements)

PAT-025 - Checklist for Choosing a Real Time Operating System (RTOS) - This checklist is designed for assisting projects that are planning to purchase a commercial  Real Time Operating System (RTOS) for use in their project. (Formerly 6.3 - Checklist for Choosing a Real Time Operating System (RTOS)

PAT-024 - Checklist for Choosing Off-The Shelf Software - This checklist is designed to provide information on items that should be considered when choosing Off-The-Shelf (OTS) software.  (Formerly 6.4 - Checklist for Choosing Off-The Shelf Software (OTS)

6.5 - Checklist for C Programming Practices –

6.6 - Checklist for C++ Programming Practices – 

6.7 - Checklist for Ada Programming Practices - 

6.8 - Checklist for Fortran Programming Practices - 

6.9 - Checklist for Generic (Non-Language-Specific) Programming Practices -  

6.10 - Checklist for General Good Programming Practices - 

  

6.11 - Examples of Programming Practices for Exception Handling - 

6.12 - Reserved for next checklist -