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Useful Links

For more information on FAA topics related to Software Policy:

FAA Aircraft Certification Products and Services

FAA Certification Authorities Software Team (CAST)

FAA Notice 8110.49, "Software Approval Guidelines," (June 2003)

DO-178B Industry Blog

DO-178 Industry Group for Engineers

Total safety at 30,000 feet

The safety of aircraft passengers depends on the flight software operating properly, which is why the FAA has developed the DO-178B standard for the development of flight software. Achieving software certification to the DO-178B standard is very time consuming and expensive. Certification requires organizations to demonstrate that their code implements all of its requirements properly, that is, does not include any extra code whose impact on the behavior of the software cannot be determined, and that the code has been tested thoroughly. The primary measurement for the adequacy of testing is code coverage analysis, analyzing that all source code in the certified application has been executed by some test requirement. For a complete description of the code coverage requirements of DO-178B, click here.

How VectorCAST can help

The structural testing process, as defined by DO-178B, revolves around testing the high and low-level requirements and analyzing the code coverage that results from this testing. On many projects, high-level or functional requirements are tested first. During this testing, VectorCAST/Cover can be used to capture and report on the Code Coverage achieved. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to get 100% code coverage during system/functional testing. More commonly, you will achieve 60-70% code coverage.

The remaining 30-40% code coverage, is achieved using unit and integration testing techniques. Unit testing involves using drivers and stubs to isolate particular functions in your application, and stimulating those functions with test cases. These "low-level" tests are used to augment the previously executed system tests and allow you to get to 100% coverage.

VectorCAST for C/C++ and VectorCAST for Ada can be used to automate the unit and integration testing process. Most importantly, the code coverage achieved during unit and integration testing, can be combined with the coverage achieved during system testing. Combined coverage reports are generated that reflect system, integration, and unit testing coverage achieved.

Testing on the Target

In most cases, all of the testing described above will need to be performed on the actual target hardware, or at a minimum, on a target simulator. For unit and integration testing, this is accomplished with the cross-compiler/RTOS specific VectorCAST/RSP (Runtime Support Package). The RSP, when used in combination with VectorCAST/C++ or VectorCAST/Ada gives you an automated unit/integration test environment for real-time testing.

Tagging Requirements to Test Cases

The VectorCAST/Requirements Gateway tool, allows you to integrate VectorCAST with requirements management tools such as Doors. This allows you tag system requirements to specific test cases and write the test results back to the requirements database.

Automated Regression Testing

DO-178B projects usually have a code base that must be supported for decades. The requirement to re-test the application for re-certification, requires automated regression testing. VectorCAST/Manage is used to manage all test activities across the entire project lifecycle. This gives you a central point of control for all certification test activities, and test reporting.

Qualification:

DO-178B specifies that qualification of a software tool is necessary when processes are eliminated, reduced, or automated by the use of a software tool without its output being verified manually. Complete tool qualifications kits are available for all VectorCAST products. The VectorCAST tools have been qualified, and used for certification, on more than 50 DO-178B avionics systems, including Level A systems. For a complete description of the VectorCAST tool qualification process, click here.