DO-254 Online Training: HVVP Setup & Verification Objectives (HW-CERT-120)

Course overview

HW-CERT-120 addresses DO-254 hardware verification — typically the most evidence-intensive part of a hardware program. It explains how to set up a Hardware Verification and Validation Plan.

The course covers the testing types and introduces elemental analysis strategies used to demonstrate that the hardware implementation meets its requirements.

What you will learn

• How to set up a compliant Hardware V&V Plan (HVVP)
• The DO-254 verification process objectives
• Hardware testing types and verification approach
• Elemental analysis strategies and when they apply
• Producing hardware verification evidence reviewers accept

Who should take this course

Hardware verification engineers and leads planning or executing DO-254 verification.

Recommended prerequisite: HW-CERT-110 — DO-254 HDP Setup & Development Objectives

Course outline

1. The verification objectives — what DO-254 asks you to demonstrate: that the implementation meets its requirements.
2. Verification methods — review, analysis and test, and when each is the right tool.
3. Requirements-based testing — normal-range cases and abnormal-range (robustness) cases.
4. Elemental analysis — how completeness of verification is shown at design assurance levels A and B.
5. Advanced verification and independence — Appendix B methods and the independence expectations that go with higher levels.

Why verification is the heart of a DO-254 program

Verification is where most of a hardware program’s evidence is produced and where the certification authority focuses most of its scrutiny. DO-254 expects you to demonstrate, through a combination of review, analysis and test, that the implemented hardware satisfies every requirement — both under normal conditions and under the abnormal, boundary and failure conditions that robustness testing exercises.

For the highest design assurance levels, requirements-based testing alone is not enough to show that verification was complete. Elemental analysis is used to confirm that the requirements-based tests actually exercised the elements that were implemented in the device; where they did not, the gap must be explained or closed. It plays a role similar in spirit to structural coverage analysis in DO-178C software, and underestimating the effort it takes is a frequent cause of schedule slips. A Hardware Verification and Validation Plan that defines methods, robustness strategy, elemental analysis and independence up front is what makes that evidence defensible.

What you will be able to do afterward

After HW-CERT-120 you will be able to build a compliant Hardware Verification and Validation Plan, choose the right mix of review, analysis and test for each requirement, plan robustness and elemental analysis appropriately, and produce verification evidence that reviewers accept.

How this course fits your certification path

HW-CERT-120 verifies the development data planned in HW-CERT-110, under the plan set introduced in HW-CERT-101. Programs using commercial parts should also take HW-CERT-310 (COTS & COTS-IP). See our DO-254 explained guide for more. Prefer instructor-led? Explore our full DO-254 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