ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a summary of the document RTCA DO-254, Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware. The joint committee of Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics Special Committee 180 and European Organization for Civil Aviation Equipment Working Group 46 prepared RTCA DO-254. The application of DO-254 is part of the established industry practices for systems development and hardware. When DO-254 was published, the system-level aspects of certification were described in SAE ARP4754, Certification Considerations for Highly-Integrated or Complex Aircraft Systems. System safety methods and analyses, although outside the scope of DO-254, are crucial to understanding how to apply DO-254. The regulatory materials governing the certification of airborne systems and equipment define the classifications of failure conditions. Organizing electronic hardware requirements by function allows for a logical structure in the documentation, traceability, and the verification. The verification can use test cases designed to optimally test all aspects of the requirements and thus the functionality.
