Quality Is Critical In Aerospace and Defense Software
You Can’t Risk a Single Defect
Aerospace, defense, and military organizations use embedded software every day. Making sure that software is safe, secure, and reliable is critical. Quality is a must-have — not a nice-to-have.
So, developers are under pressure to produce software without a single defect.
Large codebases and complex systems make this a challenge. Tough compliance requirements make it even more difficult.
Airborne systems developers need the right tools to prove compliance and develop quality systems.
Find out what aerospace and defense developers had to say about quality in our recent report.
Develop Quality Airborne Systems
Ensure Safety by Complying with Standards
Maintain Security Across Development
Guarantee Reliability with Secure Coding
Tools for Developing Reliable Mission-Critical Systems
The right tools make it easy to develop reliable mission-critical systems. That’s why countless airborne systems developers count on Perforce development tools.
Helix QAC and Klocwork make it easy to comply with DO-178C and DO-330 and mitigate risk before it becomes a problem.
Helix ALM makes it easy to fulfill DO-178C requirements, creates a traceability matrix, and mitigates risk earlier in development.
Methodics IPLM ensures design verification traceability, helps you comply with DO-254, and reduces risk by ensuring IP quality.
Helix Core makes it easy to maintain a single source of truth and integrates with Helix ALM and Methodics IPLM.
Develop Safe Airborne Systems
Lives are on the line whenever an airborne vehicle — from commercial aircrafts to fighter jets — takes off. These vehicles need to stay in the air and land, without compromising the safety of the passengers and crew on board.
Today, every airborne vehicle has embedded software. That software impacts hardware. And both need to be reliable to assure safety.
Developing safe software means you need to:
- Meet compliance requirements.
- Code in compliance with a coding standard.
- Store all digital assets — code, design files, binary files, artifacts — in one spot.
- Manage every version of code.
- Test the software thoroughly.
- Protect IP without sacrificing developer productivity.
- Collaborate across hardware and software teams.
See how Helix Core helped the Swedish Space Corporation improve performance and manage versions across distributed teams.
Comply With Aerospace and Defense Regulations
Functional safety standards ensure that embedded software is safe, secure, and reliable. In the aerospace and defense industry, you need to comply with DO-178 and the related DO-330 tool qualification standard.
But compliance with standards is equal parts challenging and important. And aerospace, defense, and military developers are under pressure to comply with the following standards.
DO-178C and DO-178B
DO-178C Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification is required for airborne systems. And it’s one of the strictest industry regulations. (DO-178C is an update to DO-178B.)
You’ll need to comply with DO-178C across development — from planning to development to verification.
Using a static code analyzer and an ALM tool makes it easier to comply with DO-178C.
DO-330 Tool Qualification
DO-330 is a separate tool qualification standard that supplements DO-178C. DO-330 sets the requirements for tools used to develop airborne systems.
Using already qualified tools saves compliance time. Helix QAC, for example, comes with a DO-330 Tool Qualification pack that gives you all the documentation you need. So, you’ll save time and effort in the compliance process.
DO-254
DO-254 provides design assurance guidance for airborne electronic hardware. It sets requirements for the hardware design lifecycle, planning, processes, and verification and validation.
If you’re designing hardware — such as circuit board assemblies — you’ll need to comply with DO-254. Using Methodics IPLM can help you in achieving and documenting compliance, including with design verification traceability.
Manage Risk Across Development
Risk is high when developing embedded software for airborne systems.
When software fails, it’s not just an annoyance. It’s life-threatening. A software failure could compromise hardware. And that could lead to injury or death for passengers and crew aboard the aircraft.
That’s why you need tools that can help you identify, manage, and mitigate risk — before it becomes a problem.
You can do this by using:
- Static analysis to identify risk early.
- Traceability to create a risk matrix — and prioritize risk.
- IP lifecycle management to reduce risk by ensuring IP is qualified before design teams use it.
- Version control to make sure the right version of all digital assets are in use.
