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

差旅补助金用于评估美国空军 8 步问题解决方法在安全关键软件配置管理中的应用

• 批准号: EP/I004289/1
• 负责人: Chris Johnson
• 金额: $ 1.02万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FI004289%2F1
• 关键词: Travel; Grant; Assess; Application; USAF

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

配置管理确保在软件开发的前一阶段确定的需求和约束，通过后续的修改得以保留。在这个一般性描述中，有一系列更具体的关注点——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，配置管理由旨在确保产品在整个开发和操作生命周期中具有功能性和非功能性需求的一致性的过程组成。短期旅行补助金将建立在三个合作的基础上：提案人与伊亚·怀特利（SEA Ltd/欧洲航天局）合作，确定欧空局长期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再处理单元的失败，来预测未来的配置管理问题。2. 提议者与Jackie Kaiser（太空司令部）一起将美国空军的8步问题解决方法应用于一般类型的配置管理问题，包括NOAA N-Prime卫星处理故障。3. 这位提议者与NASA兰利的迈克尔·霍洛威（Michael Holloway）合作了十多年。2002年，他获得了美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的奖学金，2005年，迈克尔·霍洛威（Michael Holloway）获得了美国国家航空航天局（NASA）弗洛伊德·汤普森（Floyd Thompson）的资助来到格拉斯哥。我们的联合工作集中在航空航天应用中的关键软件系统工程，但从未在配置管理方面进行过。该旅行建议的创新目标是支持复杂的安全关键软件系统的配置管理。这似乎是一个微不足道的问题；然而，一般的问题可以用SOHO天文台来说明。Marconi/MATRA开发了这颗卫星，并有一个任务模拟器。美国国家航空航天局进行了地面控制，并使用了第二个模拟器。欧空局协调发展和维护第三个。没有一个模拟器运行卫星上安装的软件版本。我们将把USAF 8-Step方法应用于影响SOHO任务的特定软件配置管理问题。这个项目的组织和技术复杂性提供了一个重大的挑战。8步问题解决模型是基于Boyd的OODA（观察、定位、决定和行动）循环的标准过程：澄清并验证问题分解问题并找出绩效差距；3. 设定改进目标4。确定原因和促成因素；5. 发展对策;6. 参见对策7。确认结果和过程标准化成功流程；这8步过程支持整个美国空军的复杂系统工程。它从未被用于识别复杂软件应用程序中配置管理问题的原因和建议。在将这些高级活动细化为可能支持空间任务中复杂的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；这种改进将是旅费补助金的重点。然后，申请人将使用旅行补助金访问美国空军太空司令部和美国宇航局兰利团队，以验证我们的发现。这些访问的结果将在国际促进空间安全协会2011年年会和国际系统安全会议上以联合文件的形式提出。最后一次访问将在欧洲航天局计划内向英国代表进行，以传播我们的工作并为未来的研究提出建议