Automated DO-178C Compliance Summary through Evidence Curation

To achieve software compliance with certification standards like DO-178C, it is crucial to establish a comprehensive certification plan. Plan for Software Aspects of Certification (PSAC) is a commonly employed approach in the aerospace industry to serve as a guideline for ensuring that all artifacts produced along the software development life-cycle adhere to the objectives listed in DO-178C. More importantly, PSAC is the primary means used by the certification authority to assess whether the developed software meets the necessary criteria. The complexity and heterogeneity of the certification evidence makes it challenging to keep track of compliance status in a tool-agnostic manner while engineers are generating certification evidence. To address these challenges, in this paper, we present a holistic approach that allows periodic tracking and review of DO-178C compliance guided by a formal PSAC throughout the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stages of involvement (SOI) using a data curation system called Rapid Assurance Curation Kit (RACK). We present an interactive Eclipse-based compliance dashboard for RACK that allows users to navigate and explore between the DO-178C hierarchy of tables, objectives, and relevant evidence that are automatically assembled and presented on the dashboard. Finally, upon fulfillment of the requirements outlined in the PSAC, the certification artifacts can be compiled into a comprehensive certification package. The package can subsequently be reviewed by the certification authority assisted by our dashboard, which allows them to replay the process and examine the obtained results, and ultimately endorse the certification.