Topics / Standards and assurance
What DO-178C can teach an agentic software team.
Requirements, traceability and disciplined verification are useful beyond aviation. Adopting selected practices does not make a product or tool DO-178C compliant.
Separate useful practice from certification credit.
RTCA identifies DO-178C as the current core document for airborne software assurance and links its use to FAA AC 20-115D. The applicable objectives, plans and authority determine a real aviation project’s evidence obligations.
Source: RTCA: software standards and supplements. Scope and edition reviewed 3 October 2026.
For an ordinary software team, start with the engineering question: which behavior must this change preserve, and what evidence would reveal a violation? Avoid borrowing an aviation label as a quality guarantee.
Build a traceable verification argument.
Illustrative example
The branch ran, but the requirement was not checked.
A test reaches the failure branch and asserts that the process stays alive. The requirement also specifies the error response and preserved data. Add observations for those outcomes and connect the test to the requirement. Structural coverage and behavioral correctness answer different questions.
| Practice | Useful artifact |
|---|---|
| Requirements-based verification | Expected behavior with an authoritative source |
| Traceability | Connections between requirement, code and checks |
| Coverage analysis | Executed scope and unexplained gaps |
| Configuration control | Evidence bound to identified revisions |
Use Proof with an explicit boundary.
Proof brings connected requirements and evidence into the coding-agent workflow. A team can use that structure to prepare and inspect engineering records. Certification, independence and any tool-qualification credit require their own scoped assessment; installing Proof does not establish them.
If you are working under DO-178C, involve the project’s assurance authority when defining the pilot and its permitted role.
Try it on your software
Demonstrate one requirement-to-evidence chain.
Bring a real change and the assurance criteria your project uses.