A Discussion on the Standard SAE-ARP-4754A and a Proposal for Using it in Product Certification and Qualification of Staff 2012-36-0572

Systems such as satellites, aircrafts, automobiles and air traffic controls are becoming increasingly complex and/or highly integrated, as prescribed by the standard SAE-ARP 4754A Standard. They integrate many technologies and they work in very demanding environments, sometimes with little or no maintenance, due to the severe conditions of operation. To survive such harsh operating conditions, they require very high levels of dependability, to be reached by a diversity of approaches, processes, components, etc. Some are suggested by the SAE-ARP-4754A as one of the highest level standards to be met. So, it is important to know it and its consequences for product and staff deeply. The aim of this paper is to present: a discussion on the standard SAE-ARP-4754A and a proposal for using it in product certification and qualification of staff. To do that we present: i) an overview of the ARP- 4754A, ii) its contextualization with Systems Engineering and CMMI maturity models, and iii) a preliminary proposal for its application in developing a system with the simultaneous goals of product certification and qualification of staff. We expect to show that: i) theARP-4754A presents secure guidelines for aircraft and systems development process to be necessarily certified; ii) its implementation requires professionals with maturity in the area of Systems Engineering as well also maturity in product development throughout its lifecycle; iii) the main pitfalls and possibilities of errors appear in the connections between the categories of planning, development and integral process and in the feedback intervals definition between the macro activities presented in the standard; and iv) the proposed solution in this paper, with ongoing implementation in a real project, promises satisfactory results mainly in increased staff maturity.