DO-178C Training Crash Course | Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification

DO-178C Training Crash Course, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification

DO-178C replaced DO-178B to be the primary document by which the certification authorities will approve all commercial software-based aerospace systems.

DO-178C represents a revision to DO-178B considering the experiences and information gathered for developing software for avionics.

The new document, entitled DO-178C (ED-12C), was completed in November 2011 and approved by the RTCA in December 2011. DO-178C became available for use in January 2012.

Trace-ability forms the basis or “foundation” (in the architectural sense) of DO-178C development and verification. Each system requirement that is realized by software must trace down to one or more high-level or derived software requirements, each of which in turn trace to one or more low-level requirements which then trace to source code.

Several certification authorities software team (CAST) papers were developed as clarification papers after the initial publication. DO-178C prescribes a process to be followed in the development of airborne systems.

One of the key requirements in the software verification process of DO-178C is achieving structural code coverage in conjunction with the testing of the high-level and low-level software requirements.

Based on a system safety assessment, failure condition categories are established. These failure condition categories determine the level of software integrity necessary for safe avionics operation. DO-178C classifies software into five levels of criticality based on whether atypical software behavior could cause or contribute to the failure of a system function.

More recently, DO-178C has also become the de facto approach for the use of software in military avionics systems worldwide.

The overall DO-178C guidance consists of six key areas:

• Planning
• Development
• Verification
• Configuration management
• Quality assurance
• Certification liaison

Testing forms a part – but not the whole – of verification. While testing follows development in the software life cycle, verification is really a concurrent process that carries on throughout.

DO-178C Training Crash Course Description

DO-178C Training Crash Course provides the knowledge required to reduce DO-178C risks and costs, while also enhancing the quality of the software during avionics development. During this intensive hands-on training, participants will learn the best practices for real-life software development and how to stay away from common DO-178C errors.

The DO-178C, which is Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification, is the main international standard for commercial avionics software development. RTCA/DO-178C is the fourth-generation standard for the commercial airborne software. The United States Federal Aviation Administration recognized it in 2013.

DO-178C gives suggestions to produce effective airborne systems and equipment software. Agreement with the objectives of DO-178C is the key tools to meet airworthiness requirements and obtain approval of software used in civil aviation products.

Through DO-178C training crash course, you will learn aircraft safety, systems, software planning, software requirements, and software design/code/test. The whole environment of aviation avionics software development will be discussed briefly including but not limited to DO-178C’s relationship to other industry standards including the SAE standards ARP-4761 for Safety and ARP-4754A for Systems Development.

DO-178C training crash course presents the fundamental concepts behind DO-178B/C avionics certification. It also discusses the differences between DO-178B and DO-178C, with the focus on how to use the guidance in the Object-Oriented Technologies and Related Techniques supplement (DO-332). You also will learn how to best apply the Ada language and GNAT Pro tool fits to agree with the certification objectives.

TONEX DO-178C Training Crash Course Feature

The most majority of this training is dedicated to hands-on activities and practical exercises with real-world cases. Once the participants learned the basics, concepts, requirements, and guidelines of DO-178C standard and its associated components, they will get to use them in the templates provided in the class. Attendees will learn about the best practices of DO-178C applications.

This intensive training course includes interactive lectures, labs, individual/small group activities, and hands-on workshops.

Audience

DO-178C training crash course is a 4-day course designed for:

• Engineering managers
• Software engineers
• Software quality engineers
• Test engineers
• Hardware engineers
• Systems engineers
• Quality and process assurance personnel
• Software developers
• Project managers

Training Objectives

Upon the completion of DO-178C training crash course, the attendees are able to:

• Understand DO-178C and its supplements
• Discuss DO-178C software development and verification planning process
• Articulate the main differences between DO-178B and DO-178C
• Understand and follow regulatory review of DO-178C
• Explain DO-330, DO-331, DO-332, DO-333 supplements
• Use general contents, supplements, and documents related to DO-178C
• Integrate changes in DO-178C with existing practices in the software analysis process
• Assess life- cycle, processes, and data for compliance with DO-178C
• Incorporate DO-330 with the existing practices for the software tool qualification process
• Assess tool qualification life-cycle processes and data for compliance with DO-330

Course Outline

Introduction to DO-178C

• Certificate overview
• DO-178C topology & map
• Objectives & activities
• Refinement
• DO-178C supplements and companion documents
• DO-178C processes
• Software planning process
• Additional considerations
• 
DO-178 & DO-254 history
• 
DO-178C/254 principles
• 
Document hierarchy & criticality levels
• 
ARP4761 safety assessments
• 
PSAC/PHAC details
• 
System & requirements details
• 
DO178/254 design aspects
• 
DO178/254 implementation, coding and reviews
• 
DO178/254 verification
• 
DO-178/254 vs CMMI
• DO-178C structural coverage, tools & strategies
• Traceability
• DO-178/254 mistakes & prevention
• DO-254 additional details
• Gap analysis & reverse engineering
• Design, data & control flow
• COTS usage in DO-178/254
• Differences between DO-178B and DO-178C
• Regulatory Review

Fundamentals of DO-178C

• Avionics environment
• Relationship to ARP-4754A and ARP-4761
• Avionics safety
• Avionics systems

DO-178C Software Planning

• Criticality levels
• Plan for Software Aspects of Certification (PSAC)
• Software Quality Assurance Planning (SQAP)
• Software Configuration Management Planning (SCMP)
• Software Development Planning (SDP) –Requirements, Design, Code, and Integration
• Software Verification Planning (SVP) – Reviews, Tests, and Analysis

DO-254 Hardware Planning

• Plan for Hardware Aspects of Certification (PHAC)
• Hardware Configuration Management Planning (HCMP)
• Hardware Verification Plan (HVP)
• Hardware Design Process (HDP)
• HPAP

Introduction to DO-254

• Compliance
• System Design Assurance Level (DAL)
• EASA and FAA application
• Hardware design lifecycle objectives and Data
• Integral processes
• Validation and verification
• Configuration management
• Process assurance
• System safety
• Tool qualification
• COTs cores and IPs
• Single Event Upset and SRAM parts
• Functional Failure Path (FFP)
• Elemental assessment
• Advanced verification techniques
• Requirements capture
• Conceptual design
• Detailed design
• Implementation and production transition
• Verification and validation

DO-178C Software Development Processes

• Requirements development
• Design development
• Software implementation
• Parameter data item files
• Trace Data
• Software Integration

DO-178C Software Verification Processes

• Software verification objectives
• Software verification process activities
• Software analyses
• Software testing
• Requirements-based testing techniques
• Test coverage analysis
• Software verification process traceability
• Verification of parameter data items

Integral Processes

• Software verification
• Software configuration management
• Software quality assurance
• Certification liaison

Software Life Cycle Data

• Plan for software aspects of certification
• Software development plan
• Software verification plan
• Software configuration management plan
• Software quality assurance plan
• Software requirements standards
• Software design standards
• Software code standards
• Software requirements data

Software Configuration Management (CM) Processes

• Software CM process objectives
• Software CM process activities
• Data control categories
• Software load control
• Software life cycle ecosystem control

Software Quality Assurance (QA) Processes

• Software QA process objectives
• Software QA process activities
• Software conformity review

DO-178C Supplements

• DO-330 software tool qualification
• DO-331 model-based development and verification
• DO-332 object-oriented technology
• DO-333 formal methods supplement

DO-178C OO Technology Supplement

• Logic of using OOP in certified avionics
• New objectives and activities in DO-178C for OOP
• OOP-specific vulnerabilities and verification
  • Inheritance
  • Polymorphism, dynamic binding, and local type consistency
  • Overloading
• Virtualization vulnerabilities and verification
• Memory management vulnerabilities and verification
• Related techniques vulnerabilities and verification
  • Type conversion
  • Exceptions
• Additional vulnerabilities and verification
  • Traceability
  • Structural coverage
  • Component-based development
  • Timing analysis

Hands-On Activities

• Labs
• Individual/group activities
• Workshops

TONEX DO-178C Sample Workshop

Participants will work on templates for the following:

• PSAC
• PSAA
• SDP
• SVP
• SCMP
• SQAP
• SRS
• SDS
• SCS
• SRD
• SDD
• SVCP
• SCAR
• SLECI
• SCI
• SAS
• DO-330
• DO-331
• DO-332
• DO-333

 DO-178C Training Crash Course