IEC TR 63201:2019

IEC TR 63201 ®
Edition 1.0 2019-05
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Low-voltage switchgear and controlgear – Guidance for the development of
embedded software
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IEC TR 63201 ®
Edition 1.0 2019-05
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Low-voltage switchgear and controlgear – Guidance for the development of

embedded software
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 29.130.20 ISBN 978-2-8322-7006-6

– 2 – IEC TR 63201:2019  IEC 2019
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Risk assessment and identification of the main functions. 10
5 Design management . 10
5.1 Objective. 10
5.2 Software management plan of the main functions . 10
5.3 Configuration management . 11
5.4 Change management . 11
5.5 Defect management . 12
5.6 System build and release processes . 13
5.6.1 Binary generation . 13
5.6.2 Release management. 13
6 Manual parameterization of the embedded software . 13
6.1 General . 13
6.2 Influences on main function related parameters . 14
6.3 Requirements for software-based manual parameterization . 14
6.4 Verification of the parameterization tool . 15
6.5 Documentation of software-based manual parameterization . 15
7 Design lifecycle. 15
7.1 General . 15
7.2 Tools usage . 16
7.3 Software lifecycle . 16
7.3.1 Software lifecycle model . 16
7.3.2 Independence of review, testing and verification activities . 17
7.4 Requirements definition . 18
7.4.1 General . 18
7.4.2 System requirements . 18
7.4.3 Software requirements specification. 18
7.5 Software architecture . 20
7.5.1 General . 20
7.5.2 Software architecture specification . 20
7.6 Software unit design . 20
7.6.1 General . 20
7.6.2 Input information . 20
7.6.3 Software unit specification . 21
7.7 Coding. 21
7.8 Software unit test . 22
7.9 Software integration test . 22
7.10 Software testing . 22
7.10.1 General . 22
7.10.2 Test planning and execution . 23

7.11 Documentation . 23
7.12 Configuration and change management process . 24
7.13 Verification and relationship with the validation of the equipment or system . 24
Bibliography . 26

Figure 1 – Defect management process . 12
Figure 2 – V-model of software lifecycle . 17

– 4 – IEC TR 63201:2019  IEC 2019
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
LOW-VOLTAGE SWITCHGEAR AND CONTROLGEAR –
GUIDANCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMBEDDED SOFTWARE

FOREWORD
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The main task of IEC technical committees is to prepare International Standards. Ho w e ve r , a
technical committee may propose the publication of a technical report when i t has c ol l ec ted
data of a different kind from that which is normally published as an International Standard, fo r
example "state of the art".
IEC TR 63201, which is a technical report, has been prepared by subcommi t te e 1 2 1 A : L o w-
voltage switchgear and controlgear, of IEC technical committee 121: Switchgear and
controlgear and their assemblies for low voltage.
The text of this technical report is based on the following documents:
Enquiry draft Report on voting
121A /256/DTR 121A /287A/RVDTR

Full information on the voting for the approval of this technical report can be found in the
report on voting indicated in the above table.

This document has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related t o
the specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revis ed edition, or
• amended.
A bilingual version of this publication may be issued at a later date.

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– 6 – IEC TR 63201:2019  IEC 2019
INTRODUCTION
Programmable electronics are now being integrated within switchgear and c ont rol gear. F or
example, soft-starters, electronic overload relays, circuit-breakers with elec tr o n ic t r i p u n i t s ,
proximity switches with built in micro-controllers and some acc es sories s uch as ex t ensi on
modules and control panels are using programmable electronics with embedded software
called firmware. This embedded software often supports the main functions (see 3.3) provided
by the equipment such as overcurrent protection and other import a n t fu n c ti o n s, e. g. al arm
detection from monitoring devices.
The integration of embedded software within switchgear and controlgear should n o t d e g r a d e
the integrity of their main functions compared to purely electromechanical equipme
...