What certification standards do you have to meet?

[Elijah_K]

I'd like to get input from the community regarding certification or quality standards your LabVIEW applications have had to meet.

If you have familiarity or experience working with LabVIEW and any of the following standards, I'm eager to know what your experience was like and to get your feedback on what could be improved.  This includes both hardware and software considerations.

• DO-178, DO-254, DO-160
• ISO 9000
• FDA (Part 820, Part 11, 510k, etc...)
• IEC
• MISRA

Thanks!

Eli

[Crystal]

FDA 21 CFR Part 820

[Ray.R]

DOD-STD-2167A, MIL-STD-498

[tstahl]

Surprisingly, none.  There are industry specifications we have to follow for the mechanical, safety, electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic systems, but none for the software itself.

Tim

[Elijah_K]

Thanks for the quick responses.  I've interacted with a number of people developing LabVIEW applications to meet these and other standards, and I've seen a large variety of practices and methodologies for doing so.  I was hoping those of you who have been succesful could provide additional background on a few other questions:

1) How much testing and/or validation of the actual graphical code did you have to perform?

2) Did you use any tools for unit testing?

3) How different was the experience from other applications you've worked on that used other languages?

4) What tools / features could make this process easier in the future?

5) What NI hardware was involved, and did it have to meet any regulatory standards?

Any information on the application itself and what it does would also be interesting!

[man78]

CMMI level 4

[Crystal]

Okay, I was waiting to see what others said, but since it's been quiet, I'll answer Eli's latest questions:

1) How much testing and/or validation of the actual graphical code did you have to perform?  Enough to prove the requirements are met.

2) Did you use any tools for unit testing?  No, I personally do unit testing as I develop but in the end, I only distribute an EXE.  The validation testing occurs after I've delivered the EXE so it's all blackbox testing.

3) How different was the experience from other applications you've worked on that used other languages? I, personally, only use LabVIEW and my colleagues mostly use C#.  We use the same tools, documentation, methods, and such because it's all blackbox testing and it doesn't matter what language the EXE was originally written in, we only have to prove we've met the requirements.

4) What tools / features could make this process easier in the future? When I develop LV code, I use VI Analyzer heavily.  I'm extremely disappointed to hear it is no longer part of the DevSuite.  Please put it back in or I will probably not upgrade.  I find it very irritating to have tools I use every day removed from the product.

5) What NI hardware was involved, and did it have to meet any regulatory standards?  Again, it doesn't matter what HW we use, we just have to prove the system/machine meets all requirements.

[Elijah_K]

Thanks for the input Crystal,

I'm glad to hear that you find VI Analyzer to be a valuable tool.  We've planned several new features for LabVIEW 2009, which was one of the reasons it was removed from DevSuite Core.  Customers with SSP can still get the current version in core with 8.6.1.