You have been assigned to manage software that controls the shutdown of the new chemical reactors to be installed at a manufacturing plant. Your manager insists the soft-ware is not safety critical. The software senses temperatures and pressures within a 50,000-gallon stainless steel vat and dumps in chemical retardants to slow down the reaction if it gets out of control. In the worst possible scenario, failure to stop a runaway reaction would result in a large explosion that would send fragments of the vat flying and spray caustic liquid in all directions. Your manager points out that the stainless steel vat is surrounded by two sets of protective concrete walls and that the reactor’s human operators can intervene in case of a software failure. He feels that these measures would protect the plant employees and the surrounding neighborhood if the shutdown software failed. Besides, he argues, the plant is already more than a year behind its scheduled start-up date. He cannot afford the additional time required to develop the software if it is classified as safety critical. How would you work with your manager and other appropriate resources to decide whether the software is safety critical?