Assurance Tools and Techniques

All publicly-released SATC-developed tools may be downloaded by visiting http://satc.gsfc.nasa.gov/tools/download.

The SATC is working on various assurance tools and techniques including:

Automated Requirement Measurement (ARM) tool
Reusable Software Management Plan
IV&V Methodology
Waterman Error Trending Model
Requirements Use case Tool

The Automated Requirement Measurement (ARM) Tool was developed by the SATC for use as an early life cycle aid to identifying sources of software risks. It produces metrics and reports which identify areas of a requirements specification document that can be improved. ARM’s development and experimental use is discussed in the paper "Automated Quality Analysis Of Natural Language Requirements", presented at the Fourteenth Annual Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, October, 1996.

NASA software policies, as detailed in NPD-2820 (replaced NMI 2410.10B as of 5/98), require the development of software management plans. The SATC has developed a Reusable Software Management Plan, based on the DID in the NASA software documentation standard to ease the burden of writing SMPs. The Reusable Software Development Plan consists of text for a software management plan written in accordance with the Management Plan DID of the NASA Software Documentation Standard. It includes an on-line help tool for tailoring text to an individual software project.

Software is a critical element in a safety critical system, it is imperative to implement a systematic approach to software safety as an integral part of the overall system safety programs. The NASA-STD-8719.13A "NASA Software Safety Standard", describes the activities necessary to ensure that safety is designed into software that is acquired or developed by NASA, and that safety is maintained throughout the software life cycle. A PDF version, can be obtained by clicking here. Glenn Research Center has developed a NASA Guidebook for Safety Critical Software which will assist in the implementation of the requirements in the Safety Standard.