The CDI team maintains experience utilizing the DO-178C standard as software engineering guidance during the development and testing of our software products for our customers. CDI has the skillsets and tools in place to provide Design Assurance Level (DAL) analysis and assignment as well as the proper planning, analysis, design, developmental, test, and configuration management processes in place to support the objectives of DO-178C. The experiences associated with our well defined development processes and procedures ensure your products under development will meet the necessary requirements with excellence and precision.
Applicable Experience:
CDI has extensive experience in reviewing our projects in accordance with DO-178C standards and supplements. CDI has developed products using DO-178C as guidance and implements the best practices from the standard in our day to day development efforts. These CDI processes and procedures (certified to CMMI-DEV ML3 and IS9100 / AS9100D) are used to assure our safety critical applications perform as expected in the targeted environment. Our Flight Performance Models (FPMs), Embedded Flight Performance Models (EFPMs), Performance Planning Card (PPC) Applications, Take Off and Landing Data (TOLD) Applications, as well as our mobile applications all have the necessary rigor to support the U.S. Army Aviation Engineering Directorate (AED) and Air Force Airworthiness Release (AWR) processes, Certificate of Networthiness (CoN), and Certificate of Conformance (CoC). Our team can meet and exceed all Safety of Flight processes and certification for all DOD components.
As part of a larger team, CDI team members provide Quality Assurance oversight in large multi-million, multi-year programs assessing compliance with the applicable standards associated with the product under development and review. This work performance is critical to the program’s success and includes planning, execution, and documentation audits; program process conformance audits which include: Stages of Involvement (SOI) audits, configuration management audits, and verification and validation audits. The audits and reviews are performed in conjunction with those executing the tasks at hand to minimize the disruption to the program execution in order to eliminate Acquisition risks and maintain Safety of Flight. CDI will provide a pro-active approach to the customer for course direction early during the process execution, and maintain that throughout the developmental Life-Cycle for the customer’s awareness and consideration.
What is DO-178C?
The DO-178 standard, developed by the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), addresses “Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification”. The latest iteration of the standard, DO-178C, also includes supporting documents that map closely with current industry development and verification practices including: Model-Based Development and Verification (DO-331) and Formal Methods (DO-333). Tool qualification is addressed in DO-330. The updates captured in DO-178C better communicate the author’s intent of the DO-178 papers through clarification as well as modernization by emphasizing newer developmental techniques. Model-based development and verification, object-oriented technologies, and formal verification is directly addressed in the supplemental documentation, thus making each application more accessible. Additionally, further information was provided for when and how to qualify tools using the Tool Qualification Level (TQL) assessment and assignment.
Why is Tool Qualification important?
Tool Qualification is a constant source of discussion in the development community as more teams pursue automated testing to support project offices needs associated with schedule restraints, rapid prototyping, and rapid re-delivery. The purpose of the tool qualification process is to obtain confidence in the tool functionality. The higher the risk of the tool error adversely affecting system safety, the higher the rigor required for tool qualification.
- Criteria 1 Tool – A tool whose output is part of the airborne software and thus could insert an error.
- Criteria 2 Tool – A tool that automates verification process(es) and thus could fail to detect an error, and whose output is used to justify the elimination or reduction of verification process(es) other than that automated by the tool, or development process(es) that could have an impact on the airborne software.
- Criteria 3 Tool – A tool that, within the scope of its intended use, could fail to detect an error.
Documentation References:
- RTCA DO-178B – Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification
- RTCA DO-178C – Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification
- DO-248C – Supporting Information for DO-178C and DO-278A
- DO-330 – Software Tool Qualification Considerations
- DO-331 – Model Based Development and Verification Supplement to DO-178C and DO-278A
- DO-332 – Object-Oriented Technology and Related Techniques Supplement to DO-178C and DO-278A
- DO-333 – Formal Methods Supplement to DO-178C and DO-278A