From Waterfallish Aerospace Certification onto Agile Certifiable Iterations

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of DO-178C-compliant certification in safety-critical aerospace software, where extensive documentation and traceability are traditionally managed in a waterfall-like process. It proposes Scrum4DO178C, an Agile-friendly four-stage development model that aligns Scrum with DO-178C V&V and introduces automation via the Certification Manager Tool and Certification Packager Tool to generate certifiable documentation iteratively. The authors demonstrate that certifiable artifacts such as the Software Requirements Document (SRD) and Software Configuration Index (SCI) can be produced automatically and synchronized with sprint deliverables, leveraging IBM DOORS and documentation templates. The work, co-designed with industry professionals, shows that continuous certification is feasible in aerospace and can reduce manual effort and error rates, potentially enabling broader adoption of Agile practices in this highly regulated domain.

Abstract

Agile software development is becoming increasingly popular in the aerospace industry because of its capability to accommodate requirement changes. However, safety-critical domains require compliance with strict regulations such as the DO-178C avionics standard, which demands thorough documentation. The main challenge of this constraint is not the content itself, but rather the comprehensive traceability from system-level requirements to all sorts of testing and verification evidence, including who did what, when, and to which artifact. Currently, this is mostly a manual activity performed at the end of the project, which blocks efforts to agilize the development of software for aerospace applications. In this paper, we present a strategy and tools that support the generation of continuous documentation complying with DO-178C requirements. By iteratively creating the DO-178C documentation associated with each software component and seamlessly merging it with the previously generated documentation, we open the way to truly continuous certifiable iterations, an evolution from the current Waterfallish industry practice. The proposed mechanisms and tools were co-designed and validated with aerospace industry professionals, thereby confirming its applicability and usefulness. The generated artifacts show that document automation is feasible in the aerospace industry, opening the way for more widespread adoption of Agile practices in this highly regulated sector.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: Flow chart showing functionality stages.
• Figure 2: Overview of the Specification Stage.
• Figure 3: Overview of the Software Implementation Stage.
• Figure 4: Overview of the Software Testing Stage.
• Figure 5: Overview of the HSI & System Testing Stage.