This article uses software as the context but the safety life cycle applies to other areas such as construction of buildings, for example.
In software development, a process is used (software life cycle) and this process consists of a few phases, typically covering initiation, analysis, design, programming, testing and implementation.
The first stages of the life cycle involve assessing the potential system hazards and estimating the risk they pose.
[3] The specification may either describe how the software should behave to minimize the risk or might require that the hazard should never arise.
A ‘normal’ process model is then followed with particular attention paid to the validation (inspection, testing etc.)