Adapting DO-178C processes by implementing a reverse engineering technique

Software used in safety-critical systems has become a major component in today´s system design. Meanwhile, developing certifiable software for safety-critical systems is time- and labor-intensive. Hence, there is a need for an effective and efficient technique to minimize required cost and effort. In this paper, we present a novel reverse engineering technique to generate non-existing, inadequate, or unavailable software life cycle data required for RTCA/DO-178C certification of previously developed software such as a third party library and applications. Our technique has three stages (planning, development, and correctness) in which life cycle data including plan documents, requirements, design, and test cases are created in order to meet DO-178C objectives. We also apply our technique on two previously developed industrial software (third party libraries) to show how we create required data to satisfy the objectives. Furthermore, we discuss important points that can affect the duration of producing certification evidence e.g. a large number of existing test results in a shorter correctness stage. We experimentally validate that our technique makes easier to manage and develop safety-critical software while providing a 2.6× faster certification process.