Towards qualifiable graphical editing of complex domain-specific models in safety-critical avionics

Abstract

The increasing complexity of avionics is effectively handled by using domain-specific modeling. However, since strict safety standards apply, the tool-generated artifacts need to be qualified. Currently, artifacts are mainly qualified manually, which causes tremendous effort in the industry. The standards allow qualifying a tool such that its output artifacts are automatically qualified. Nevertheless, any domain-specific modeling environment inherently has enormous complexity. Very simple modeling environments might be qualifiable, but avionics models are highly complex and therefore require sophisticated visualization techniques. These techniques themselves have a high complexity, which makes tool qualification unbearably expensive. Overall, the necessary effort discourages companies from qualifying modeling environments, especially in avionics. In this paper, we propose an approach of a domain-specific modeling environment with sophisticated visualization with a focus on qualifiability. This shall be achieved by decoupling graphical editing from the model. An essential core shall be qualified with the strictest level, while the complex visualization is decoupled and therefore can be qualified with less stringency. The relevant tool qualification standard shall be examined concerning the question of how decoupling can be realized.