Avionic Software and Agile Development: A Systematic Mapping Study

Background: The rapid increase in the use of agile development has raised the question whether of the aerospace industry can benefit from the application of agile approaches in the production of software for airborne systems and equipment. These systems are regulated by the standard DO-178 since there are hard constraints imposed on them. Additionally, the evolution of the avionics software increases the complexity of the software. Therefore, the approach to the feasibility of agile development for avionics software needs to be further understood. Objective: This study aims to examine the research publications on the agile development implemented in the lifecycle of the avionic software in order to found the trend of this mode of development. Method: We conducted systematic mapping study adopting the guideline offered by [1, 2] and classified the contributions research between 2001 and 2021 in the map. Conclusion: We selected 46 articles from 956 found in four electronic databases and based on the results, we conclude that over the past decade there has been a general increase in the number of studies concerning the agile development in different phases of the avionics software lifecycle. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.