RTCA/DO-178B

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Software considerations in airborne systems and equipment certification

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This document provides guidance for developing a software product which is part of an airborne system and for determining if it complies with overall system airworthiness requirements.

RTCA is an association of aeronautical organizations of the U.S.A. from both government and industry.

Information regarding RTCA/DO-178B is provided under the following headings:

• the target audience
• the scope of the standard
• an abstract of its contents

The audience for this standard includes:

• acquirers,
• suppliers,
• organizations involved in evaluation/certification

of software products to be integrated in airborne systems and equipment.

This document may be also very helpful in other fields of application where dependability is a strong requirement.

The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines for the production of software for airborne systems and equipment that performs its intended function with a level of confidence in safety that complies with airworthiness requirements.

This document discusses the following software life cycle processes:

• planning process
• software development process
• integral processes, performed to ensure correctness, control and confidence of the other processes and their outputs.

The integral processes are the software verification process, the software configuration management process, the software quality assurance process and the certification process.

Particular emphasis is given to system aspects relating to software development, defining the information flow between system and software life cycle processes, mainly for safety and verification matters.

The guidelines are expressed in form of:

• objectives for software life cycle processes
• descriptions of activities and design considerations for achieving those objectives
• descriptions of the evidence that indicates that the objectives have been satisfied.