Getting Smarter at Managing Avionic Software: The Results of a Two-Day Requirements Elicitation Workshop With DTAES

• Main Authors: Charland, P, Dessureault, D, Dussault, G, Lizotte, M, Michaud, F, Ouellet, D, Salois, M
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aircraft; AVIONIC SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT; AVIONICS; CANADA; Computer Programming and Software; Computer Systems Management and Standards; FOREIGN REPORTS; RECORDS MANAGEMENT; REQUIREMENTS; SOFTWARE ENGINEERING; WORKSHOPS

Managing avionic software effectively is a challenge with today's tools and resources. The Directorate of Technical Airworthiness and Engineering Support (DTAES) has recognized this and has approached DRDC Valcartier to address the problem from a technological standpoint. The team at DRDC Valcartier has considerable expertise in software engineering but, unfortunately at this point, very little in avionics. To offset this, a series of measures have been undertaken to ramp up this expertise (e.g. training, production of state-of-the-art reports). The first of these measures was the organization of a two-day workshop with DTAES and its partners to better define their requirements in avionics software management. This document highlights the results of this workshop, held in December 2006. The workshop used the Decision Support Services (DSS) collaborative laboratory, located at the National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. This laboratory is built on the MeetingWorks toolset to provide each of the 11 participants with his own computer on which to give feedback on the four pre-identified domains (extraction, analysis, visualization, process support). From the outputs of these domains, the main tasks or problematic areas were identified and prioritized. These will be further investigated later, which could lead to relevant research projects and new engineering efforts within DRDC. Since DRDC Valcartier is a neophyte in this area, this document will not be an all-encompassing list of all avionic software engineering problems. It rather provides a summary of the most important requirements identified at the workshop. As DRDC Valcartier is currently negotiating with DTAES to improve various other aspects related to the air platforms, the document also provides an opportunity to spotlight potential openings for future collaboration to improve the whole avionic engineering process. This document highlights the results of a workshop held at the Decision Support Services collaborative laboratory at the National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa, Canada in Dec 2006. The original document contains color images.