OpenDO Project – Rationale

It is the view of the authors of this project that the primary reasons for rejection of IP217 during the Phoenix plenary session were the following
  • a lack of time to satisfy all the expressed concerns and questions (e.g. we like the ideas, but we don't think there is enough time left to get them approved - so I'm voting no)
  • conflicts in interest (e.g. if this is approved - my SC-205 group will have to do more work)
  • conflicts in direction (e.g. source code should be eliminated, source code must not be eliminated)
  • vested interests (e.g. my company does not want to have to change any processes or procedures or learn new concepts)
  • politics (e.g. our major IP was treated badly, so we are going to vote no on all other major IP's)
  • lack of understanding (e.g. not enough time or desire on the part of many SC-205 members to learn and understand the details and benefits)
  • concern about scope (e.g. we like IP217, but it is outside the scope of the TOR)
  • the requirement that 97% of the SC-205 plenary approve core text changes.
In spite of the rejection by the SC-205 plenary it was expressed to the IP217 tiger-team many times, by many people, including Executive committee members, that the work done on IP217 should not be lost. The idea of writing an official RTCA Discussion Paper was was suggested. However, the authors believe that a DP would not achieve the goal of presenting the IP217 information to a wide enough audience in a manner that would allow for easy and ongoing discussions, debates, and refinements. We believe the OpenDO approach will be a better platform on which to present IP217 in a systematic, complete, and well explained manner while still allowing interested parties inside the DO-178B/C community, as well as in the software engineering community at large, to be involved and to ask questions and debate the IP217 -based solutions to the problems of DO-178B/C.