Best Practices and Recommendations for the Model-Based Development Process

The Aerospace and Defense industry is currently challenged in multiple ways - cost cutting and sequestration on the defense side, and spurt of growth on the commercial aviation side of business. While these are opposing trends, both will impose severe challenges to the management of product development process for both the Air framers and the suppliers. The challenge becomes severe as the innovation expectations become rapid with increases in embedded software content in avionics and the advent of a new category of autonomous ground, marine, and air systems. Clearly, the industry need is to have a product development process that allows for reducing costs, while increasing embedded software quality and thereby product quality even in an iterative development process.

This paper looks at the lessons learnt by industries like automotive and commercial vehicles in overcoming similar economic and technical challenges by leveraging model-based design to establish a continuous product development process that stretches from OEMs to suppliers. Commercially available tool-chains, standards and practices across the industries hold similar promise for aerospace and defense industries. Authors of this paper will share their insights from decades of experience in supporting OEMs and suppliers across the broad spectrum of industries to recommend best practices that will help with the aforesaid challenges in avionics development.