Competence Guidelines
Safety-Related System Competence Guidelines
The crucial component in the management of functional safety is the competence of all those with a role to play throughout the safety system and software lifecycle.
Clause 6 of IEC 61508-1 specifies the requirements for the management of functional safety including reference to the need for those involved in any part of the safety related system / software lifecycle to have the necessary competence relevant to the specific duties that they have to perform. These requirements have triggered a number of organisation to produce competence guidelines. These competence management procedures must also cover the refreshing, updating and continued assessment of competence. Clause 6 also lists relevant factors to consider in relation to competence.
In short competence is an essential aspect that must be considered for functional safety. This does not mean that everyone involved needs to be a functional safety “expert”, it means they must be competent to perform the tasks they have been assigned (e.g., install a pressure transmitter).
Our “summary papers” in our downloads section give a general overview of functional safety from the view of different engineering roles.
Other related functional safety standards also require competence to be considered. For example, IEC 61511 has competence requirements detailed in clause 5.2.2.2 which covers persons, departments and organisations (or other units). Some functional safety standards may not directly mention competence but it is very common that poor competence is a substantial issue for the correct application of functional safety. As a possibly daunting task, we recommend just starting your competence management journey but then ensure you document, challenge, and review on a regular basis (for example, plan | do | check | act). Competence management is often a topic of discussion during our general meetings.
Active membership of The 61508 Association (getting involved) can be a mechanism for widening and developing your (and your organisations) functional safety knowledge / sector awareness and can be a mechanism to demonstrate continuous personal development (CPD). Our general meetings often involve interesting technical presentations and discussions on functional safety related topics.
The UK’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has published guidance on the management of competence for people responsible for safety related systems. Managing competence for safety-related systems was issued by the HSE, the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) and the British Computer Society (BCS) in two parts:
Part 2: Supplementary material
To complement the general guidance, the IET in conjunction with HSE and BCS has revised the guidelines on job related competencies for those working on safety-related systems. Competence criteria for Safety-related system practitioners can be purchased from theiet.org
Many people find the procedures for setting up, operating and maintaining a competence management system for safety related systems daunting and challenging (don’t worry! you are not alone!), especially after reading this guidance. We recommend seeking competent guidance to help you through the process.
The IET (from the UK) have also done some interesting work on competence for safety-related systems. They first published a very detailed code of practice in 2015. This code of practice covers numerous roles for safety-related systems but was, overall, generally found to be daunting by many. It does however have much useful information contained within it (take and use selected parts). The IET followed this up with a less daunting guidance framework for competence management in 2022 to help people get started on their competence management journey. Both these documents are still available, although chargeable, from the IET Shop via the links below.
Guidance Framework for Competence Management (IET e-book): The IET Shop – Guidance Framework for Competence Management (e-book)
Code of Practice: Competence for Safety-Related System Practitioners (IET e-book): The IET Shop – Code of Practice: Competence for Safety-Related Systems Practitioners
Code of Practice: Competence for Safety-Related System Practitioners (IET publication): The IET Shop – Code of Practice: Competence for Safety Related Systems Practitioners
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