Abstract

Software applications in which failure may result in possible catastrophic consequences on human life are classified as safety-critical. These applications are widely used in a variety of fields and systems such as airborne systems, nuclear reactors' control, and medical diagnostic equipment. Unfortunately, the world has seen several accidents and tragedies caused by software failure error or where such failure/error was part of the problem. This thesis looks into safety-critical software embedded in airborne systems. It proposes a lifecycle specially modeled for the development of safety-critical software in aerospace and in compliance with the DO-178B standard and a software quality assurance (SQA) model based on a set of four acceptance criteria that builds quality into safety-critical software throughout its development. The thesis also provides frameworks and guidelines for the implementation of the proposed SQA model in addition to sets of rules defining how to assess the software development with respect to the four acceptance criteria.