PURPOSE

The purpose of this SAE Aerospace Information Report (AIR) is to provide a high-level set of principles to support aerospace projects required to use a formal development assurance process, such as ARP4754/ED-79 (at latest revision), to show regulatory compliance. Examples of projects where a formal development assurance process is needed are those that have significant functional interactions or whose products cannot be fully analyzed or tested. Development assurance techniques reduce the likelihood of undetected errors that could have safety impacts in the operation of the product. Design and analysis techniques traditionally applied to deterministic risks or to conventional, non-complex systems may not provide adequate safety coverage for more complex systems.

This document does not mandate specific processes to meet each development assurance principle. These principles are written at a high level to allow flexibility so that users can develop and evaluate their own compliant development assurance processes. Users are responsible for presenting their development assurance approach to certification authorities and obtaining agreement. The framework in this document can assist with this coordination.

BACKGROUND

The industry has commonly relied on ARP4754/ED-79 (at latest revision) for guidelines for development assurance processes. However, ARP4754/ED-79 (at latest revision) has presented several challenges:

a. Some potentially effective development assurance methods are not adequately addressed by ARP4754/ED-79 (at latest revision) techniques (e.g., system level application of formal methods, model-based system engineering, systems theoretic process analysis).

b. Novel technologies are not adequately addressed by ARP4754/ED-79 (at latest revision) techniques (e.g., neural networks, artificial intelligence, machine learning).

c. Developers have had difficulty obtaining acceptance of existing company processes and practices that meet the intent of ARP4754/ED-79 (at latest revision).

d. ARP4754/ED-79 (at latest revision) has been misinterpreted or misapplied, requiring activities that were intended as recommendations.

The development assurance principles in this document describe the fundamental principles from ARP4754/ED-79 (at latest revision). These principles provide a framework within which these challenges may be addressed. ARP4754/ED-79 (at latest revision) remains one means, but not the only means, of meeting these principles. Users are responsible for coordinating their development assurance approach with certification authorities.