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1. Requirements
2.1.1.4 The NASA OCE shall authorize appraisals against selected requirements in this NPR to check compliance.
1.1 Notes
NPR 7150.2, NASA Software Engineering Requirements, does not include any notes for this requirement.
2. Rationale
The Headquarters' Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE) is responsible for promoting and monitoring software engineering practices throughout the agency. It achieves this in part by administering software requirements, policy, procedures, processes, statutes, and regulations. The Headquarters' OCE uses continuing periodic oversight of compliance at the Centers and programs/projects to verify that this responsibility is being met.
NPR 7150.2 serves as the basis for compliance appraisals for software engineering. The appraisal typically occurs during an OCE survey of a Center's processes and directives and through examinations of a project's official records. These surveys are one of the tools used by the OCE to provide oversight, to maintain internal control, and to review its operations.
While SWE-129 is written from the OCE point of view, the requirement also contains an inherent Center role, i.e., participation in the OCE survey activities. A Center's support of this SWE can be assessed by considering the extent of its preparations for and involvement in these OCE surveys.
3. Guidance
The Headquarters
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controls and maintains an appraisal process for use in periodic Center and project OCE compliance surveys. The OCE compliance survey achieves several objectives. They are:
- Review Center and specified NASA Headquarters organizations’ processes and infrastructure for compliance with OCE requirements, policy, procedures, processes, statutes, and regulations.
- Review specific program/project “files” for compliance with requirements, policy, procedures, processes, statutes, and regulations.
- Identify systemic problems or deficiencies.
- Recognize areas of excellence/best practices.
- Receive Center feedback regarding modifications in Agency policy and requirements.
Currently, the OCE compliance surveys focus on the following core elements:
- Common framework for unified program and project life cycle.
- Program and project review structure.
- Technical authority implementation.
- Dissenting opinions and deviation/waiver process.
- Software engineering management.
- Systems engineering.
- Lessons learned.
- Technical standards.
- Other.
In addition to NPR 7150.2, the Headquarters’ OCE compliance survey may also include a review and appraisal of the products resulting from the use of the following documents, to the extent they involve software engineering:
- NPD 7120.4D, NASA Engineering and Program/Project Management Policy. 257
- NASA-STD-8739.8, Software Assurance Standard. 278
- NASA-STD-8719.13, Software Safety Standard. 271
The two NASA standards in this list are traditionally covered in detail by
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audits conducted by the NASA Safety Center.
“The baseline set of questions are reviewed and may be revised as needed to support the survey at each specific organization. Input for updates to the questions is obtained from survey team members including the software engineering sub-team lead, the systems engineering sub-team lead, and the
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representative for records management” (
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Requirements Compliance Survey Process, 2010).
The process of determining the scope for a survey addresses the following items at a minimum:
- Requirements implementation and compliance.
- Results from audits, reviews, and assessments conducted by other organizations.
- Trends identified across the Agency or within a single organization.
Preparations for the survey typically include reviews of the flow down of NASA OCE requirements to Center/Project procedural documents, reviews of organization and program/project specific documentation and reviews of other surveys, audits and assessments. What follows in this guidance is a brief summary of the software engineering survey team's appraisal process. The main thrust of the software sub-team's appraisal is built into a set of questions from the OCE. This baseline set of questions serves as guidance to the Center or project to communicate what the OCE wants to review. The survey leader will communicate these questions to the Center's survey manager 3 to 4 weeks before the event, who in turn conveys them to the software point of contact. (SW POC). This is usually the Center's NASA Software Working Group (SWG) primary representative.
As in many reviews, surveys, and appraisal activities, compliance is often measured against objective evidence. Expected content and types of this objective quality evidence are usually defined in the preparation for the software survey. This defined material provides the basis for confirmation of compliance with requirements and identification of strengths and weaknesses. The Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute provides the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI®) appraisal method 157 for process improvement. The method provides an excellent discussion of the philosophy and types of objective evidence. The degree to which Centers follow the CMMI® method can be assessed in a Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPISM) activity. While the information presented in the SCAMPISM discussion is centered on evaluating CMMI® process implementation, the discussions and explanations in the CMMI® text provide good background information for use in the
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appraisals to people for who are relatively inexperienced in appraisals and surveys.
Findings resulting from the survey are generally classified as strengths, weaknesses, observations, opportunities, and non-compliances. However, the survey team has a clear and overriding obligation to identify all items of non-compliance and items that adversely affect safety or quality. These items will be included in the final report. Significant issues are brought to the immediate attention of the surveyed organization's management via the survey manager
Additional guidance related to OCE Appraisal activities may be found in the following related requirements and sections in this Handbook:
OCE Benchmarking | |
Software Process Determination | |
SWE-139 | Shall Statements |
SWE-145 | Approve Waivers and Deviations |
Topic 7.18 | Documentation Guidance |
4. Small Projects
Typically, the
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includes a small project in the survey activities at a Center. The OCE survey leader will work with the Center SW POC to develop the appropriate level of survey involvement for small projects.
5. Resources
- (SWEREF-082) NPR 7120.5F, Office of the Chief Engineer, Effective Date: August 03, 2021, Expiration Date: August 03, 2026,
- (SWEREF-157) CMMI Development Team (2010). CMU/SEI-2010-TR-033, Software Engineering Institute.
- (SWEREF-197) Software Processes Across NASA (SPAN) web site in NEN SPAN is a compendium of Processes, Procedures, Job Aids, Examples and other recommended best practices.
- (SWEREF-256) NPR 1400.1H, NASA Office of Internal Controls and Management Systems, Effective Date: March 29, 2019, Expiration Date: March 29, 2024
- (SWEREF-257) NPD 7120.4E, NASA Office of the Chief Engineer, Effective Date: June 26, 2017, Expiration Date: June 26, 2022
- (SWEREF-261) NPD 1000.0C, NASA Governance and Strategic Management Handbook, Effective Date: January 29, 2020, Expiration Date: January 29, 2025
- (SWEREF-262) NASA Headquarters NASA Office of the Chief Engineer engineering deviations and waivers website.
- (SWEREF-271) NASA STD 8719.13 (Rev C ) , Document Date: 2013-05-07
- (SWEREF-273) NASA SP-2016-6105 Rev2,
- (SWEREF-277) NASA-STD-8739.9, NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, 2013. Change Date: 2016-10-07, Change Number: 1
- (SWEREF-278) NASA-STD-8739.8B , NASA TECHNICAL STANDARD, Approved 2022-09-08 Superseding "NASA-STD-8739.8A,
- (SWEREF-374) OCE Requirements Compliance Survey Process,Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE), NASA, 2010.
5.1 Tools
Tools to aid in compliance with this SWE, if any, may be found in the Tools Library in the NASA Engineering Network (NEN).
NASA users find this in the Tools Library in the Software Processes Across NASA (SPAN) site of the Software Engineering Community in NEN.
The list is informational only and does not represent an “approved tool list”, nor does it represent an endorsement of any particular tool. The purpose is to provide examples of tools being used across the Agency and to help projects and centers decide what tools to consider.
6. Lessons Learned
No Lessons Learned have currently been identified for this requirement.