Assurance 2.0: A Manifesto

Abstract: System assurance is confronted by significant challenges. Some of these are new, for example, autonomous systems with major functions driven by machine learning and AI, and ultra-rapid system development, while others are the familiar, persistent issues of the need for efficient, effective and timely assurance. Traditional assurance is seen as a brake on innovation and often costly and time consuming. We therefore propose a modernized framework, Assurance 2.0, as an enabler that supports innovation and continuous incremental assurance. Perhaps unexpectedly, it does so by making assurance more rigorous, with increased focus on the reasoning and evidence employed, and explicit identification of defeaters and counterevidence.