[e52906b] | 1 | .. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0 |
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[1ae5e88] | 2 | |
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[1ff876a] | 3 | .. Copyright (C) 2020 embedded brains GmbH |
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[4886d60] | 4 | .. Copyright (C) 2016, 2018 RTEMS Foundation, The RTEMS Documentation Project |
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| 5 | .. Copyright (C) 1988, 2008 On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR) |
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[1ae5e88] | 6 | |
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| 7 | Introduction to Pre-Qualification |
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| 8 | ********************************* |
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| 9 | |
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| 10 | RTEMS has a long history of being used to support critical |
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| 11 | applications. In some of these application domains, there are standards |
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| 12 | (e.g., DO-178C, NPR 7150.2) which define the expectations for the |
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| 13 | processes used to develop software and the associated artifacts. These |
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| 14 | standards typically do not specify software functionality but address |
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| 15 | topics like requirements definition, traceability, having a documented |
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[6682434] | 16 | change process, coding style, testing requirements, and a user's |
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| 17 | manual. During system test, these standards call for a review - usually |
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| 18 | by an independent entity - that the standard has been adhered too. These |
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[1ae5e88] | 19 | reviews cover a broad variety of topics and activities, but the process |
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| 20 | is generally referred to as qualification, verification, or auditing |
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| 21 | against the specific standard in use. The RTEMS Project will use the |
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[6682434] | 22 | term "qualification" independent of the standard. |
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[1ae5e88] | 23 | |
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| 24 | The goal of the RTEMS Qualification Project is to make RTEMS easier |
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| 25 | to review regardless of the standard chosen. Quite specifically, |
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| 26 | the RTEMS Qualification effort will NOT produce a directly qualified |
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| 27 | product or artifacts in the format dictated by a specific organization |
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| 28 | or standard. The goal is to make RTEMS itself, documentation, testing |
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| 29 | infrastructure, etc. more closely align with the information requirements |
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| 30 | of these high integrity qualification standards. In addition to improving |
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| 31 | the items that a mature, high quality open source project will have, |
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| 32 | there are additional artifacts needed for a qualification effort that |
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| 33 | no known open source project possesses. Specifically, requirements and |
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| 34 | the associated traceability to source code, tests, and documentation |
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| 35 | are needed. |
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| 36 | |
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| 37 | The RTEMS Qualification Project is technically |
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[6682434] | 38 | "pre-qualification." True qualification must be performed on the |
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| 39 | project's target hardware in a system context. The FAA has provided |
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[1ae5e88] | 40 | guidance for Reusable Software Components (FAA-AC20-148) and this |
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| 41 | effort should follow that guidance. The open RTEMS Project, with the |
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| 42 | assistance of domain experts, will possess and maintain the master |
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| 43 | technical information needed in a qualification effort. Consultants |
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| 44 | will provide the services required to tailor the master information, |
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| 45 | perform testing on specific system hardware, and to guide end users in |
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| 46 | using the master technical data in the context of a particular standard. |
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| 47 | |
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| 48 | The RTEMS Qualification Project will broadly address two areas. The |
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| 49 | first area is suggesting areas of improvement for automated project |
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| 50 | infrastructure and the master technical data that has traditionally been |
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| 51 | provided by the RTEMS Project. For example, the RTEMS Qualification could |
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| 52 | suggest specific improvements to code coverage reports. The teams focused |
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| 53 | on qualification should be able to provide resources for improving the |
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| 54 | automated project infrastructure and master technical data for RTEMS. The |
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[6682434] | 55 | term "resources" is often used by open source projects to refer to |
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[1ae5e88] | 56 | volunteer code contributions or funding. Although code contributions in |
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| 57 | this area are important and always welcome, funding is also important. At |
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| 58 | a minimum, ongoing funding is needed for maintenance and upgrades of |
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| 59 | the RTEMS Project server infrastructure, addition of services to those |
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| 60 | servers, and core contributors to review submissions |
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| 61 | |
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| 62 | The second area is the creation and maintenance of master technical |
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| 63 | data that has traditionally not been owned or maintained by the RTEMS |
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| 64 | Project. The most obvious example of this is a requirements set with |
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| 65 | proper infrastructure for tracing requirements through code to test |
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| 66 | and documentation. It is expected that these will be maintained by the |
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| 67 | RTEMS Qualification Project. They will be evaluated for adoption by |
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| 68 | the main RTEMS Project but the additional maintenance burden imposed |
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| 69 | will be a strong factor in this consideration. It behooves the RTEMS |
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| 70 | Qualification Project to limit dependence on manual checks and ensure |
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| 71 | that automation and ongoing support for that automation is contributed |
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| 72 | to the RTEMS Project. |
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| 73 | |
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| 74 | It is expected that the RTEMS Qualification Project will create and |
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| 75 | maintain maps from the RTEMS master technical data to the various |
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[6682434] | 76 | qualification standards. It will maintain "scorecards" which |
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[1ae5e88] | 77 | identify how the RTEMS Project is currently doing when reviewed per each |
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| 78 | standard. These will be maintained in the open as community resources |
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| 79 | which will guide the community in improving its infrastructure. |
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[1ff876a] | 80 | |
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| 81 | Stakeholder Involvement |
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| 82 | ======================= |
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| 83 | |
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| 84 | Qualification of RTEMS is a specialized activity and only specific users |
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| 85 | of RTEMS will complete a formal qualification activity. The RTEMS Project |
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| 86 | cannot self-fund this entire activity and requires stakeholder to invest |
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| 87 | in an ongoing basis to ensure that any investment they make is maintained |
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| 88 | and viable in an ongoing basis. The RTEMS core developers view steady |
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| 89 | support of the qualification effort as necessary to continue to lower |
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| 90 | the overall costs of qualifying RTEMS. |
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