Tool Qualification | Using Qualified Tools in a DO-178C Development Process, Part 11

Many of the MathWorks tools used in Model-Based Design and formal methods analysis require qualification under DO-330 Software Tool Qualification Considerations. The DO Qualification Kit provides the necessary documentation and testing artifacts to qualify these tools for a DO-178C project. The DO Qualification Kit provides tool qualification plans, tool operational requirements documents, test cases and procedures, as well as references for soundness of formal methods techniques, where applicable. This kit is licensed separately from the tools being qualified and can be applied to any number of projects and across any releases of MathWorks tools. Since DO-330 does require the user to verify the tool in its installed environment, the test procedures are automated to allow the user to easily execute the tests and verify the expected results are correct. The tools provide support for various Windows, Linux, and MAC operating systems. The tools that are supported in the DO Qualification Kit are Simulink Report Generator™, Simulink Check™, Simulink Test™, Simulink Coverage™, Simulink Design Verifier™, Simulink Code Inspector™, Polyspace Bug Finder™ and Polyspace Code Prover™. Artifacts for formal methods soundness are provided for Simulink Design Verifier and Polyspace Code Prover. Additional artifacts that are provided in the DO Qualification Kit are a user guide describing the tool user activities, a workflow document describing how to use the tools in a DO-178C process, a Plan for Software Aspects of Certification template, and a Software Model Standards template. DO-330 does have specific tool user activities as part of the tool qualification process, those are: including the qualified tools in the project's Plan for Software Aspects of Certification, reviewing the tool operational requirements for applicability to the project, running a test in the installed environment and verifying the results, arching the tools and results in a configuration management system, and finally, summarizing all of the tool qualification activities in the Software Accomplishments Summary for the project.