Better, faster, cheaper, and safer too — Is this really possible?

Increased levels of automation together with increased complexity of automation systems brings increased responsibility on the system developers in terms of quality demands from the legal perspectives as well as company reputation. Component based development of software systems provides a viable and cost-effective alternative in this context provided one can address the quality and safety certification demands in an efficient manner. In this paper we present our vision, challenges and a brief outline of various research themes in which our team is engaged currently within two major projects.