Certification of Safety-Critical Software Under DO-178C and DO-278A

The RTCA has recently released DO-178C and DO-278A as new certification guidance for the production of airborne and ground-based air traffic management software, respectively. Additionally, RTCA special committee SC-205 has also produced, at the same time, five other companion documents. These documents are RTCA DO-248C, DO-330, DO-331, DO332, and DO-333. These supplements address frequently asked questions about software certification, provide guidance on tool qualification requirements, and illustrate the modifications recommended to DO-178C when using model-based software design, object oriented programming, and formal methods. The objective of this paper is to first explain the relationship of DO-178C to the former DO-178B in order to give those familiar with DO178B an indication of what has been changed and what has not been changed. With this background, the relationship of DO-178C and DO-278 to the new DO-278A document for ground-based software development is shown. Last, an overview of the new guidance contained in the tool qualification document and the three new supplements to DO-178C and DO-278A is presented. For those unfamiliar with DO-178B, this paper serves to provide an entry point to this new certification guidance for airborne and ground-based CNS/ATM software certification.