Travel Grant to Assess the Application of the USAF 8-Step Problem Solving Method for Configuration Management in Safety-Critical Software

配置管理确保在软件开发的前一个阶段中确定的需求和约束通过后续修改得到保留。在该一般描述中有一系列更具体的问题--例如，配置管理的一个方面侧重于维护系统组件之间定义良好的接口。更广泛地说，配置管理包括旨在确保产品在整个开发和运营生命周期中与功能需求和非功能需求保持一致的流程。短期旅行赠款将建立在三个合作的基础上：1.提议人与Iya Whitly(SEA有限公司/欧洲航天局)合作，确定欧空局长期飞行任务中的配置管理问题。这涉及到利用以前的事故，包括国际空间站尿液后处理单元的故障，来预测未来的配置管理问题。2.与Jackie Kaiser(太空司令部)合作的提出者将美国空军的8步问题求解方法应用于一类一般的配置管理问题，包括NOAA N-Prime卫星处理故障。3.提名者已经在NASA兰利与迈克尔·霍洛韦共事了十多年。他获得了美国宇航局的奖学金(2002年)，并获得了美国宇航局弗洛伊德·汤普森的资助(2005年)，把迈克尔·霍洛威带到了格拉斯哥。我们的合作重点是航空航天应用中的关键软件系统工程，但以前从未关注过配置管理。这项旅行计划的创新目标是支持复杂的安全关键软件系统的配置管理。这可能看起来是一个微不足道的问题；然而，SOHO天文台可以说明普遍的问题。马可尼/马特拉开发了这颗卫星，并有一个任务模拟器。NASA负责地面控制，并使用了第二个模拟器。欧空局协调发展，保持第三。没有一个模拟器运行安装在卫星上的软件版本。我们将把美国空军8步法应用于影响SOHO任务的具体软件配置管理问题。该项目的组织和技术复杂性带来了巨大的挑战。8步问题解决模型是基于Boyd的Ooda(观察、定向、决定和行动)循环的标准过程：1.澄清和验证问题2.分解问题并识别绩效差距；3.设定改进目标4.确定原因和促成因素；5.制定对策；6.通过7.确认结果和过程8.标准化成功的过程；这个8步过程支持整个美国空军的复杂系统工程。它从未被用来确定复杂软件应用程序中配置管理问题的原因和建议。在将这些高级别活动细化为可能支持空间飞行任务中复杂软件工程任务的详细配置管理过程方面仍然存在一些重大问题；这一改进将是旅费赠款的重点。然后，提议者将使用旅行补助金访问美国空军空间司令部和NASA兰利团队，以验证我们的发现。这些访问的结果将在2011年国际促进空间安全协会年会和国际系统安全会议上以一份联合文件的形式提出。将对欧洲航天局方案中的英国代表进行最后一次访问，以传播我们的工作并为未来的研究制定建议

Configuration management ensures that requirements and constraints, identified in previous stages of software development, are preserved through subsequent modifications. Within this general description there are a range of more specific concerns - for example, one aspect of configuration management focuses on the maintenance of well defined interfaces between system components. More broadly, configuration management consists of processes that are intended to ensure the consistency of a product with both functional and non-functional requirements throughout the development and operational lifecycle. The short travel grant will build on three collaborations:1. The proposer has worked with Iya Whitely (SEA Ltd/European Space Agency) to identify configuration management problems in ESA's long duration missions. This involved the use of previous mishaps, including the failure of the International Space Station's Urine Reprocessing Unit, to anticipate future configuration management problems. 2. The proposer with Jackie Kaiser (Space Command) applied the USAF 8-Step Problem Solving Method to a general class of configuration management problems including the NOAA N-Prime Satellite handling failure. 3. The proposer has worked with Michael Holloway at NASA Langley for more than a decade. He held a NASA fellowship (2002) and a NASA Floyd Thompson grant brought Michael Holloway to Glasgow (2005). Our joint work has focussed on critical software systems engineering in aerospace applications but never before on Configuration Management.The innovative aim of this travel proposal is to support configuration management for complex safety-critical, software systems. This might seem to be a trivial trivial issue; however, the general problems can be illustrated by the SOHO observatory. Marconi/MATRA developed the satellite and had a mission simulator. NASA ran the ground control and used a second simulator. ESA coordinated development and maintained a third. None of the simulators ran the version of the software installed on the satellite. We will apply the USAF 8-Step Method to the specific software configuration management problems that affected the SOHO mission. The organisational and technical complexity of this project provides a significant challenge. The 8 Step Problem Solving Model is a standard process based on Boyd's OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) Loop: 1. Clarify and Validate the Problem 2. Break Down the Problem and Identify Performance Gaps; 3. Set Improvement Target 4. Determine Causes and Contributory Factors; 5. Develop Countermeasures; 6. See Countermeasures Through 7. Confirm Results and Process 8. Standardize Successful Processes; This 8-Step process supports complex systems engineering across the USAF. It has never been used to identify causes and recommendations for configuration management problems in complex software applications. A number of significant problems remain in refining these high-level activities into the detailed configuration management processes that might support complex software engineering tasks in space missions; this refinement will be the focus of the travel grant. The proposer will then use the travel grant to visit USAF Space Command and the NASA Langley team to validate our findings. The outcome from these visits will be presented in a joint paper at the 2011 Annual Conference of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety and at the International Systems Safety Conference. A final visit will be made to UK representatives within the European Space Agency programme to disseminate our work and develop proposals for future research