CI/CD and Continuous Compliance of Embedded Software for Aerospace and Defense

CI/CD for pure software products is well understood by most stakeholders in software development processes today. But hardware dependencies and embedded development complicate that clean picture. In embedded systems, software may be only a part number in a physical product, often tied to a particular hardware configuration, approved before release, and costly to change in the field. Yet such programs must still deliver on time, while continuing to meet requirements for certification, traceability, and supply chain security.

In this webinar, speakers from Qt Group and GitLab will discuss strategies for tackling the challenges inherent to build and test on embedded systems, particularly in regulated industries like aerospace and defense.

Significant improvements to efficiency, robustness, and reproducibility can be found by using test tooling designed specifically for embedded development. "Test as you fly" shouldn't have to mean manual testing on hardware sitting at a developer's desk or lab bench. Modern tooling provides for integration of target hardware into CI/CD and leverages automation to reduce manual testing. Removing the human-in-the-loop improves not only the speed of test, but eliminates human error. Control of target hardware alongside CI/CD is also essential to ensuring that the entire build and test system is auditable, reproducible, and secure. For embedded systems, controlling the software is not enough.

Proof is becoming a condition of sale. The EU Cyber Resilience Act starts imposing vulnerability reporting duties on 11 September 2026, with software bills of materials and technical documentation following in 2027. It joins established standards such as DO-178C and DO-330, which already govern airborne software and the tools used to verify it. All of them ask for evidence of how the software was built, gathered while it was being built. CI/CD is the only place where validated, attested, and externally traceable builds and releases can exist.

This webinar endeavors to show how this may be achieved for your own embedded development programs.

By joining our webinar, you will learn:

• Why software practices sufficient for pure-software products need adaptation for embedded, hardware-bound development
• How target hardware can be integrated into a CI/CD pipeline, and what that changes about testing
• How to apply test automation selectively, at the right points in the development workflow, to raise quality without adding friction
• What continuous compliance actually requires: standardized, secured, traceable, and auditable build infrastructure
• Why findings must be tied to the specific change that produced them, and why human review only scales when reviewers handle exceptions rather than everything
• How compliance becomes a company-level capability only when it can be enforced without slowing delivery