The Challenges of Software Certification

The safety critical community – those involved in developing and verifying safety critical systems – is very conservative and adverse to change. Meanwhile, technology is changing rapidly, and there is pressure to adapt systems to improve their efficiency and safety. This presents a number of challenges. The community has already addressed some; others are in process. While the guidance on airborne software certification is mature, the issues with software reuse, military avionics certification, ground-based software, and object oriented technology are still evolving.