1. Purpose of the gate
This gate is where the authority, or the integrator on its behalf, accepts that the hardware and software meet the objectives of DO-254 and DO-178C at their levels, and that the equipment meets its specification. It is the culmination of liaison that began with the plans.
Reviewers sample rather than read everything. They follow threads from a system requirement down to an item requirement, its design, its code, its test and its result, and back; they pick problem reports and check their safety assessment; they compare the configuration index with the unit in front of them. The accomplishment summaries must state honestly where the program departed from its plans, because a deviation discovered by a reviewer is treated far more seriously than one declared.
The certification baseline is frozen at this gate. The configuration indexes then define what a conforming unit is for production and for every later change.
Open problem reports are the most negotiated part of this gate. Some programs aim to close every report; others leave reports with no safety effect open, each with an assessment the integrator agrees and, where needed, an operational limitation. Either can be acceptable, but the position must be decided before the review, written into the summaries, and supported by a safety assessment of each report.
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