ASCE 4.1 is released

Adelard's ASCE is the leading commercial system for the development and management of assurance cases and safety cases. It is in use in many industry sectors, worldwide. With the launch of version 4, we bring new levels of usability and a wider range of interfaces to source evidence and change tracking. ASCE has improved reporting and printing capability to MS Word, HTML and PDF. It also has new facilities to support the development of modular safety and assurance cases.

ASCE Version 4.1 is intended to be a long term stable release, suitable for organisations with high IT approval threshold. ASCE 4.1 provides a consolidation of bug fixes and 'features' in 4.0, together with a modest improvement in functionality and usability.

News: October 2012: ASCE 4.1 Service Release 1 (SR1) is now available. For release notes see the release note.

The main updates from 4.0 are as follows:

• Core Application
  • In-place editing control is more configurable.
  • The "do not save to disk when closing node" is now a session only feature. On closing the session ASCE will in other sessions save back to disk when closing a node.
  • Link traversal improvement - clicking an external hyperlink should now use the users default web browser.
  • There was a limit on the size of an ASCE network in previous version (~60Mb) - this limitation has been removed.
  • Improvement in the default node selection in creating an export path.
  • Images pasted from the clipboard are now optimised to minimise disk usage, and a minor "banding" bug on pasted images is fixed.
  • Node properties and preview windows are accessible from both the main window and user views.
• Plugins
  • Plugin help can be accessed through the plugin manager (Internet access required).
  • Office 2007/2010 applications now fully supported (MS Word, Access, Excel).
  • Cassandra (3.3) and eCassandra (2.0) - the most recent upgrades are now supported.
  • arrangement macros now support selection of different depths.
  • The VML/HTML plugin now supports export of images.
  • The PDF plugin supports Acrobat 10.
  • Plugin signatures are now insensitive to timezone or clock changes. Previously this could require complete re-enabling of plugins after a clock or timezone change.
• Schemas
  • Better display of node type (when enabled)
• The ASCE Difference Tool
  • The ASCE Difference Tool now allows either side-by-side comparison, or marked-up comparison
• The ASCE Browser
• The ASCE Browser is now formally installed - this is done as part of the ASCE installation.
• The installation also installs an ASCE Browser installer - this can be given away freely to other parties.
• Auto-start CD configuration is no longer available

Download

Download ASCE 4.1

User benefits of ASCE 4.1

Benefits of ASCE 4.1	Detail
Easier to use	User interface improvements, including Multiple level undo Direct "in-place" editing Dragging hand navigation Plugin manager Updated printing Updated plugins, including: Status field editor Node numbering Arrangement macros
Link to a wider range of source docs and evidence	ASCE 4.1 includes a wider range of DNR plugins, allowing you to integrate your case with the most common office document formats (.doc, .pdf, .xls etc), as well as some specialist tools, including eCassandra, Emphasis and DOORS. You can continue to use the most appropriate format for the supporting evidence for your case, and use ASCE's powerful linking and extracting facilities to make use of this content as evidence in your assurance case. DNR plugins also support tracking of changes in the underlying documents, so you can easily tell when the underlying evidence for you case is changing. ASCE can show you where you are using this evidence, making it easier to manage the impact of change.
Improved reporting	Updated one click export plugin - for creating production quality MS Word documents and safety and assurance case reports from ASCE. This plugin allows you to export directly into your existing corporate document templates, so reports from ASCE will have your house style and layout. Updated printing - significantly improved in version 4, supporting a wider range of printers. VML browser - another way to export content from ASCE so that it can be viewed on a machine that does not have ASCE installed. The VML export includes a "zoomable" view to help navigate and share larger exported networks. This content can be put on a CD or uploaded to your intranet/extranet for sharing with customers and colleagues. The exported content will usually work on heavily restricted (e.g. Government) systems.
Improved change tracking	ASCE uses DNRs to tracks changes to your linked evidence. As the underlying evidence changes you can see a "marked up" report showing exactly how the underlying evidence has changed since last checked. This makes it easier to understand how changes to evidence impact your case. The ASCE Difference tool has been enhanced to show "marked up" changes when comparing node narrative changes between two versions of an ASCE network. This reduces the effort of reviewing tasks since it is now easier to understand how ASCE files have been edited.
Improved configuration management	Safety and Assurance Cases comprise both the structured argument and the supporting evidence. However the evidence may be managed on its own update schedule. ASCE version 4 has new tools to help you identify and manage all the linked evidence, and as necessary, update all references to use updated versions of evidence that may have become available. A packaging mechanism is now provided so that you can easily create a "standalone" snapshot of your case and all the associated linked files for easy archival, or distribution (e.g. by CD/DVD).
Modular Cases	A modular approach can help to manage larger cases (e.g. by linking ASCE networks together). An example of this is by means of modular extensions to GSN. ASCE v4 provides a powerful framework for displaying modular cases and to manage references between them. Adelard is developing practical tools for modular cases based on v4 capability. An implementation of modular GSN is available. This is not part of the standard ASCE 4.1 package, please contact us for further details.
Business and safety process integration	ASCE is designed to be easily adapted into your existing safety or assurance processes. It contains additional tools to support your management processes for assurance, including collaborative working: Node review metadata plugin - flag parts of your case as needing review, say, every 6 months, and discover what is currently due for review Embedded issues plugin - identify ongoing issues and actions in your case (e.g. actions to be resolved, limitations to be addressed etc), create summary lists of these issues and identify when they change

Download

Download ASCE 4.1