Adopting Aerospace Development and Verification Standards for Software

An ever-increasing reliance on software control has meant that many companies from non-aerospace business sectors (automotive, nuclear power, MRI scanners, financial systems) that do not have a traditional requirement for sophisticated software development processes now find themselves compelled to undertake safety-critical and safety-related analysis and testing. With the need for increased software quality across different industries, a tendency has emerged for companies to look outside their own market sector for best practice approaches, techniques or standards. Examples of such industry crossover have been seen in the automotive and avionics industries with the adoption of elements of the DO-178B standard by the former and a similar adoption of the Motor Industry Software Reliability Association (MISRA) standards by the latter.