DO-254, Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic ... - RTCA
Imagine a team at an aerospace firm designing a —the hardware responsible for helping a pilot maintain a steady nose-up or nose-down position. Because a failure here could be catastrophic, it is assigned Design Assurance Level (DAL) A , the most stringent level.
In the world of avionics, is the practice of ensuring that the "brain" of an aircraft—its complex electronics—is built so reliably that its failure is practically impossible in critical flight conditions.