DO-178C, DO-254, ARP 4754A, etc. (all the standards and policy documents involving systems, software, hardware certification) have many unique terms, abbreviations, and acronyms. Here we’ve combined the most commonly-used (and often misunderstood) terms with their applicable acronyms (when appropriate) so you have a complete understanding of what these things stand for and mean. This is not meant to be a complete list of every term or acronym you may encounter in a certification program. You should review the complete glossaries that are part of the DO-178C, DO-254 and ARP 4754A documents themselves. For a complete list of certification-related FAA acronyms, visit http://www.faa-aircraft-certification.com/faa-acronyms.html.

A

  • Activity
  • Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC)
  • Advisory Circular (AC)
  • AC/AMC 20-115D
  • AC 20-152/AMC 20-152A
  • AC/AMC 20-189
  • AC/AMC 20-193
  • Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP)
  • Airborne Electronic Hardware (AEH)
  • Aircraft Certification Office (ACO)
  • Airworthiness
  • Airworthiness Certification Services, LLC. (ACS)
  • Airworthiness Directive (AD)
  • Anomalous Behavior
  • Archive
  • Authorized Representative (AR)

B

  • Baseline
  • Baselines and Traceability
  • Branch

C

  • Certificate of Airworthiness (C of A)
  • Certification Authority or Representative
  • Certification Authorities Software Team (CAST)
  • Certification Basis
  • Certification Credit
  • Certification Memoranda (CM)
  • Certification Review Item (CRI)
  • Change Control (CC)
  • Change Control Board (CCB)
  • Change Impact Analysis (CIA)
  • Change Review
  • Code (or Source Code)
  • Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
  • Complex Electronic Hardware (CEH)
  • Compliance
  • Conceptual Design(s)
  • Configuration Identification
  • Configuration Item (CI)
  • Configuration Management (CM)
  • Configuration Status Accounting
  • Conformity
  • Control Category (CC1, CC2, HC1, HC2)
  • Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS)
  • Commercial Off-The-Shelf Intellectual Property (COTS IP)
  • Coverage Analysis

D

  • Department of Transportation (DOT)
  • Derived Requirement
  • Designated Engineering Representative (DER)
  • Design (or Development) Assurance Level (DAL)
  • Designated Engineering Representative (DER)
  • DO-160G
  • DO-178C (ED-12C)
  • DO-254
  • DO-278A
  • DO-330 (ED-215)
  • DO-331 (ED-218)
  • DO-332 (ED-217)
  • DO-333 (ED-217)

E

  • Elemental Analysis
  • European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)

F

  • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
  • Function
  • Functional Failure Path Analysis (FFPA)

H

  • Hardware Description Language (HDL)
  • Hardware Item
  • High-Level Requirement (HLR)

I

  • Item
  • Item DAL (IDAL)

L

  • Level of FAA Involvement (LOFI)
  • Life Cycle (Hardware or Software Item)
  • Low-Level Requirement (LLR)

M

  • Module
  • Multi-Core Processor

O

  • Objectives
  • Order
  • Open Problem Report (OPR)

P

  • Preliminary System Safety Assessment (PSSA)
  • Previously Developed Hardware (PDH)
  • Process and Artifact Compliance Tool (PACT)
  • Patmos Engineering Services, Inc.
  • Peer Review
  • Problem Reporting (PR)
  • Process Assurance (PA)
  • Product
  • Project

Q

  • Quality Assurance (QA)

R

  • Repository
  • Requirement
  • Requirements-Based Coverage Analysis
  • Robustness

S

  • Simple Electronic Hardware (SEH)
  • Single Event Effect (SEE)
  • Single Event Upset (SEU)
  • Software Item
  • Source Code
  • Stage of Involvement (SOI)
  • Structural Coverage Analysis (SCA)
  • Supplemental Type Certificate (STC)
  • System
  • System Safety Assessment (SSA)

T

  • Target Testing
  • Test Case (TC)
  • Test Coverage Analysis (TCA)
  • Test Procedure (TP)
  • Traceability
  • Transition Criteria
  • Transition Review
  • Tool Qualification (TQ)
  • Top Level Drawing (TLD)
  • Type Certificate (TC)