Towards compliance to safety objectives using data curation

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology to show compliance to safety objectives using a new data curation system called RACK. First, we use a bowtie diagram as a lightweight safety analysis to demonstrate the connection between safety assessment and software development process. Once an assurance level is properly assigned, we use a Python script to highlight which DO-178C objectives we are obligated to show compliance to. Next, we present the use of RACK-Rapid Assurance Curation Kit-to find evidence in each of the software development processes. Finally, we present a novel way to concisely visualize traceability and status of compliance to DO-178C objectives via a sunburst. Our finding is that provenance language is embedded in DO-178C and their referenced activities. This makes RACK suitable for demonstrating compliance since its underlying data model is built on provenance classes and relationships. In summary, this paper presents a methodology that automatically generates a visualization to show compliance to DO-178C objectives using RACK to query for evidence that an activity was completed.