HCRQ

HCRQ is a consulting and training firm for system safety and software safety. System safety is the practice of finding and managing hazards in a complex system. Software safety does the same for the code inside that system. The firm says it has worked in this field since 1986.

The company has served many sectors. These include defense, aviation, rail, unmanned systems, automotive, medical devices, nuclear power and process control. The site says its client list holds 162 organizations. Named clients include Union Pacific, Laird Technologies, Envistacom, Curtiss-Wright and JCB.

Consulting covers system safety, software safety, and reliability, availability and maintainability, often shortened to RAM. It also covers quality assurance and quality control. The firm says it helps clients build safety into a product across its whole life. It also offers help with proposal writing and technical writing.

HCRQ also does forensic safety analysis. The site says it has been asked 11 times to find the root cause of accidents, often ones where people died. It adds that the firm has been interviewed on television.

Training is a large part of the business. Courses include system safety, software safety, MIL-STD-882E system safety, aviation system safety and fault tree analysis. A fault tree is a diagram that maps how small failures can lead to a large one. Courses run in Virginia or live online. On-site classes have been planned in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Spain.

The firm also runs webinars on topics such as system safety program plans, hazard analysis and software failure mode analysis. It sells tools and templates, such as fault tree acceptance criteria and an example system safety program plan.

The company is based in Williamsburg, Virginia. It publishes monthly newsletters on system safety and software safety, which it has done since 2008. The website also has pages on its founder Hunter Austegard, testimonials and a referral program.