Why does your Avionics Software Need DO-178B/C Compliance?
With the ever-emerging technological advances in the IT sector, all aspects of everyday life as we know it are changing course and their ways of operation to accommodate digitization and modern solutions in their workings. Aviation is no exception to this. The key point of this entire industry is pace. So, it is no surprise that it has managed to keep up with the new, relevant technologies and continuously improve the consumer experience.
The aviation sector has truly harnessed the power of software and employed it at every level of its operation-from menial tasks to risk-critical functions- and has increased efficiency while cutting down costs. But as it is with any software product, a good result requires a lot of rigorous software testing in avionics to ensure product efficiency and safety. In the case of aviation, the stakes are high, and hence, so are the regulations that avionic software must comply with. DO-178B/C are such safety regulation guidelines.
What exactly is DO-178B/C?
DO-178B (Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification) is a primary aviation development standard that has been in use for over twenty years. This guideline aims to ensure that the software programs involved in commercial aircraft are reliable and safe for flight. The upgraded version of this guideline is the DO-178C, which is also referred to as ED-12C. The latter, which is now considered the means of complying with the regulations of airworthiness in terms of avionic software in airborne systems, came into use in 2011.
This standard guideline has been accepted and adopted by different significant certification bodies worldwide, including RTCA, FAA, EASA, CAAC and so on. The essential characteristic of this guideline is that even though it lays out the specific objectives and requirements very clearly, it does not prescribe any hard and fast process through which you need to meet the ends. Even though this seems like it would allow a breathing space for manufacturers to handle things their way, organizations face difficulties to match the pace of their unique procedures with the developments in the fields of technology.
The critical baseline of DO-178C is almost the same as that of DO-178B, making transitioning from the old to the new one much easier for companies. If an organization has been keeping up with DO-178B, aside from a few procedural changes, it should be good to go without committing to any drastic change. The DO-178C puts down some general frameworks like specifying software lifecycle process goals, the methodological ways to fulfill these objectives and describing the verification process to ensure that you meet your goals.
There are three types of processes specified by the standard:
1. Planning: These types of procedures are for determining and handling every aspect of the development phase.
In the planning stage, there are usually five essential plans that you need to create-
· Software Development Plan (SDP)
· Software Configuration Management Plan (SCMP)
· Plan for Software Aspects of Certification (PSAC)
· Software Verification Plan (SVP)
· Software Quality Assurance Plan (SQAP)
2. Development: This encapsulates all the aspects covering requirements, design, codes, testing and integration.
3. Validation: The verification and validation phase of the standard emphasize the need for appropriate verification cases and procedures to be designed and maintained in a version-controlled repository with efficient systems for tracking change. The verification process should also provide a comprehensive code analysis and a review of the traceability of all the tests and their results.
It is needless to say that the significance of compliance with the DO-178B/C standard is crucial to ensure and maintain not only the safety of the consumer and the aircraft, but also to optimize the overall operations of an organization in the field of aviation.
A reliable QA organization possesses experienced software testing professionals with ample domain knowledge to assist you in ensuring DO-178 compliance with their expert software testing.
According to the guidelines, the software can help automate, assist or handle any issue within the scope of the DO-178 processes. But all the tools and solutions employed in the verification and testing phase must also be considered a part of the overall certification procedure along with the relevant development solutions, strategies and records.
