Checklists for compliance to DO-178C and DO-278A standards

The growth and complexity of airborne systems requires the elaboration of specific standards for software certification, mainly due to the characteristics of safety and reliability. As a consequence it is also necessary to improve the corresponding verification processes including the techniques that facilitate checking compliance with these required features. The goal of this paper is to analyse and develop a guide to implement the use of checklists as a formal inspection technique in the verification of compliance to all aspects referred by standards DO-178C and DO-278A. We have analysed in detail the normative under study and we have generated a set of checklists with a distributed application along the identified verification processes. These checklists have subsequently been validated from two points of view: one as a part of the usual process and another through the opinion of experts in the field. •A guide to implement the use of checklists as a formal inspection technique.•Improved verification processes.•A complete set of checklists adapted to DO-178C/DO-278A standards is presented.•Checklists validated from different points of view.