DO 178C Planning
RTCA DO 178C Planning
The RTCA DO 178C Planning process is the most important aspect of a DO-178C or DO-278A software certification processes.
The defined DO-178C software Design Assurance Level shall determine the contents of all
plans and the level of activity or rigor to implement in order to satisfy the
certification authority.
The planning process defines a number of plans and standards, that define the software certification process.
Plans defined in the planning process shall define all other aspects of the software certification including the end of the process,
where the PSAC (Plan for Software Accomplishment Summary) should be a good match for the end of process SAS (Software Accomplishment Summary). In others word, did your PSAC meet the final goals and acheivements or did the team deviate in any way and were the deviations recorded and were they valid. The SAS will be reviewed at Stage of Involvement #4
These sections provide an overview of the plans and standards, but if you need support, contact us at any time.
Plan for Software Aspects of Certification (PSAC)
The PSAC is the key plan for the proposed development method to the cert authority and the means of compliance to DO-178C. The PSAC must be implemented throughout the project by the project software engineers, any deviations must be defined in the Software Accomplishments Summary (SAS) at the end of the project, before Stage of Involvement #4.
Design decisions for the project are made in the PSAC, confirming the hardware platform, which are defined by the system requirements, selecting “bare metal” or “Real Time Operating System” (RTOS), DAL level considerations, it’s important to ensure that the safety certifiable stack is compatible with the choice of hardware components and any additional requirements relating to safety and security (DO 326A). Especially, the Boot Loader, Built in Test (BIT) and the means to ensure COTS software suppliers processes and outputs comply with approved software plans and standards.
Solution Concepts has experience with known certifiable hardware and software combinations and system security implications, contact us if you need help.
Software Devolopment Plan (SDP)
The SDP shall define the software development environment, including the means by which the software development objects shall be satisfied.
The SDP shall also define the software life cycle(s), but what are software life cycle processes?
Software Life Cycle processes are the planning, software development and integral processes during the project, integral processes are Verification, Configuration Management and the Software Quality Assurances processes.
Software Verification Plan (SVP)
The Software Verification Plan is a description of the verification procedures to be used to satisfy the software verification objectives. Choice of verification tools and consideration for the software platform is needed, if a certifiable RTOS is used with partitioning.
Software Configuration Management Plan (SCMP)
The SCMP defines the methods to acheive the objectives of the Software Configuration Management process activities.
Choice of configuration management tools can play a big part in CM throughout the life of the project.
Software Quality Assurance Plan (SQAP)
The SQAP should be implemented by the Software Quality Assurance team and shall cover reviews, audits, inspections and monitoring of the software life cycle processes.
Software Quality Assurance must take responsibility to implement the SQAP, to ensure independence of the QA team from the software team.