The invention relates to a method for debugging software components of a distributed real-time software system, wherein the target hardware comprises computer nodes and the development system comprises one or more computers. According to the invention, an enhanced development system is formed, in which enhanced development system the computer nodes of the target hardware are connected to the computers of the development system via one or more time-controlled distributer units, wherein the enhanced development system has a sparse global time of known precision, wherein the computer nodes of the target hardware exchange messages with the computers of the development system via one or more distributer units, and wherein, in a frame, a software component on the target hardware and, temporally parallel thereto, a software component in the development system are supplied with the same input data and executed, wherein the activation signals are triggered at the start of the two executions of the software component in the same space tick of the global time, and wherein the software component executed in the development system is enhanced in such a way that, during its execution, selected intermediate results are written on an external data memory.