ARP 4754 Requirements Development Online Training (AV-CERT-120)

Course overview

Good requirements are the single biggest driver of certification cost and risk. This 117-slide workshop explains how requirements evolve from high-level aircraft and system intent down to verifiable low-level requirements, and how to manage them across the lifecycle.

You will learn which attributes a well-formed requirement must carry, how to set up requirement standards for your organization, and how to maintain bidirectional traceability that survives audits and SOI reviews.

What you will learn

• How requirements evolve from aircraft level to low-level requirements
• The attributes that make a requirement verifiable and unambiguous
• How to set up requirement standards and authoring guidance
• Bidirectional traceability that holds up under SOI review
• Common requirement defects and how to prevent them

Who should take this course

Systems and software engineers, requirements authors, and verification leads who need durable, audit-ready requirements practices.

Recommended prerequisite: AV-CERT-101 — Introduction to Design Assurance (ARP 4754A & ARP 4761)

Course outline

1. The requirement hierarchy — how aircraft and system intent becomes high-level and then low-level requirements.
2. Requirement attributes — the qualities that make a requirement unambiguous, verifiable and uniquely identifiable.
3. Validation versus verification — confirming you have the right requirements as well as that they are met.
4. Requirement standards — authoring guidance that keeps a team’s requirements consistent.
5. Bidirectional traceability — links that survive SOI review and change.

Why validation, not just verification, decides requirement quality

Most requirement training stops at verification — showing the implementation meets the requirements. ARP 4754 puts equal weight on validation: showing the requirements themselves are correct and complete. A program can verify perfectly against a flawed requirement set and still build the wrong system. Validation is what catches missing cases, wrong assumptions and unstated intent before they propagate into design, code and test, where they are far more expensive to fix.

The practical levers are requirement attributes, requirement standards and traceability. Requirements that are atomic, unambiguous and verifiable, written against an agreed standard and traced bidirectionally from aircraft level down to low-level requirements, are what make both validation and verification tractable. Derived requirements — those with no parent — need explicit justification and feedback to the safety process, because they can introduce hazards the higher levels never anticipated.

What you will be able to do afterward

After AV-CERT-120 you will be able to author requirements with the right attributes, set up requirement standards, distinguish and perform validation and verification, and maintain traceability that holds up under audit.

How this course fits your certification path

AV-CERT-120 builds on AV-CERT-101 and feeds the DO-178C and DO-254 development courses, including SW-CERT-110 and HW-CERT-110. For context, see our ARP 4754 explained guide. Prefer instructor-led? Explore our full ARP 4754 & 4761 training courses.

How on-demand training works

Every ConsuNova module is delivered online and self-paced, so you can learn on your own schedule. Each purchase includes 30-day access with unlimited views and downloads for one user, and a certificate of completion is issued automatically when you finish the module.

Your instructors

This module is authored and delivered by ConsuNova’s senior certification authorities, giving you both FAA and EASA perspectives on compliance:

Reza Madjidi FAA DER Consultant

Provides FAA Designated Engineering Representative expertise on U.S. avionics certification.

Martin Beeby EASA CVE Authorized

Brings EASA Certification Verification Engineer authority on European avionics compliance.

Frequently asked questions