Towards Optimization of Software V &V Activities in the Space Industry

Developing software for high-dependable space applications and systems is a formidable task. With new political and market pressures on the space industry to deliver more software at a lower cost, optimization of their methods and standards need to be investigated. The industry has to follow standards that strictly sets quality goals and prescribes engineering processes and methods to fulfill them. The overall goal of this study is to evaluate if current use of ECSS standards is cost efficient and if there are ways to make the process leaner while still maintaining the quality and to analyze if their V&V activities can be optimized. This paper presents results from two industrial case studies of companies in the European space industry that are following ECSS standards and have various V&V activities. The case studies reported here focused on how the ECSS standards were used by the companies and how that affected their processes and how their V&V activities can be optimized.