Requirements and Verification Management

Summary

I have worked on numerous fast-paced, proof-of-concept satellite mission and program ($1+ billion in contract value). For these programs, one item we tasked with was collaborating with many mission partners to develop and flow customer requirements, and sell off a start-of-the-art space vehicle to meet mission critical objectives. The team, multiple times, were forced to depart from traditional systems engineering techniques to effectively communicate requirements and gather verification products from all parties to formally deliver the satellite to our customer. I developed processes and tools to ensure that this ran smoothly, and received praise from the customer numerous times.

Master Tracking Sheet to Deliver Satellite

Typically, requirements management and verification rollout is performed with a heritage tool called IBM DOORS. This tool has long been “the standard” in the requirements/verification management field. However, due to the nature of our program (working with multiple mission partners, fast-paced nature for delivery, and frequent need to status requirement closure to all parties), our team was faced with a challenge to depart from using DOORS exclusively.

In one program, I devised a master spreadsheet (using Excel) that pulled relevant requirement and verification information from DOORS. Additionally, it included VBA scripting (that I myself learned for this task and implemented for the program) to automatically show the user which verification activities and products have been concluded and received. This was the evidence needed to deem the traced requirement closed. This spreadsheet also allowed for automated chart generation that included schedule burndown, as well as other metrics asked for by program management and the customer.

The intuitive nature of the spreadsheet became evident, and the spreadsheet itself was used program wide by all mission partners, including the customer.