1. NASA-STD-8739.8A Title Material
| Approved: 2020-06-10 | Measurement System Identification: Not Measurement Sensitive |
NASA TECHNICAL STANDARD National Aeronautics and Space Administration | NASA-STD-8739.8A Approved: 2020-06-10 |
| SOFTWARE ASSURANCE AND SOFTWARE SAFETY STANDARD APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE – DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED |
DOCUMENT HISTORY LOG
| Status | Document Revision | Approval Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | Initial | 2004-07-28 | Initial Release |
| 1 | 2005-05-05 | Administrative changes to the Preface; Paragraphs 1.1, 1.4, 1.5, 2.1.1, 2.2.2, 3, 5.1.2.3, 5.4.1.1; 5.6.2, 5.8.1.2, 6.7.1.a, 7.3.2, 7.3.3, 7.5, 7.5.1; Table 1; Appendix A; Appendix C to reflect NASA Transformation changes, reflect the release of NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) 7150.2, NASA Software Engineering Requirements and to make minor editorial changes. Note: Some paragraphs have changed pages as a result of these changes. Only pages where content has changed are identified by change indications. | |
| A | 2020-06-10 | The revised document addresses the following significant issues: combined the NASA Software Assurance Standard (NASA-STD-8739.8) with the NASA Software Safety Standard (NASA-STD-8719.13), reduction of requirements, bring into alignment with updates to NPR 7150.2, added a section on IV&V requirements to perform IV&V, and moved guidance text to an Electronic Handbook. This change combines the updates to NASA-STD-8739.8 and the content of NASA-STD-8719.13. The update includes the NASA software safety requirements and cancels NASA-STD-8719.13 standard. |
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This NASA Technical Standard is published by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to provide uniform engineering and technical requirements for processes, procedures, practices, and methods that have been endorsed as standard for NASA facilities, programs, and projects, including requirements for selection, application, and design criteria of an item.
This standard was developed by the NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA). Requests for information, corrections, or additions to this standard should be submitted to the OSMA by email to Agency-SMA-Policy-Feedback@mail.nasa.gov or via the “Email Feedback” link at https://standards.nasa.gov.
F. Groen for T. Wilcutt NASA Chief, Safety and Mission Assurance | June 10, 2020 Approval Date |
Software Assurance and Software Safety Requirements Mapping Matrix
| NPR 7150.2 Section | SWE # | NPR 7150.2 Requirement | Software Assurance and Software Safety Tasks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Software Management Requirements | ||
| 3.1 | Software Life-Cycle Planning | ||
| 3.1.2 | 033 | 3.1.2 The project manager shall assess options for software acquisition versus development. | 1. Confirm that the options for software acquisition versus development have been evaluated. 2. Confirm the flow down of applicable software engineering, software assurance, and software safety requirements on all acquisition activities. (NPR 7150.2 and NASA-STD-8739.8). 3. Assess any risks with acquisition versus development decision(s). |
| 3.1.3 | 013 | 3.1.3 The project manager shall develop, maintain, and execute software plans, including security plans, that cover the entire software life cycle and, as a minimum, address the requirements of this directive with approved tailoring. | 1. Confirm that all plans, including security plans, are in place and have expected content for the life cycle events, with proper tailoring for the classification of the software.2. Develop and maintain a Software Assurance Plan following the content defined in NASA-HDBK-2203 for a software assurance plan, including software safety. |
3. Example of Table from Software Assurance Plan
The table below was taken from excerpts from Software Assurance Plan in SWEHBVD. The table is built from SWE excerpts plus SA Tasks using the individual SA tasks from the "SA Tasks from NASA-STD-8739.8A" area of SITE.
The advantage of using this technique is that changes to the requirements (from SWEHBVD SWEs) and SA Tasks (from NASA-STD-8739.8A) will be made in one place. Once the updates are made, all of the places where they are repeated (quoted) are automatically updated.
It is a little one time work to setup. It saves time as updates are made in documents.
SWE # | NPR 7150.2 Requirement | NASA-STD-8739.8 Software Assurance and Software Safety Tasks per SA Standard |
013 | 3.1.3 The project manager shall develop, maintain, and execute software plans, including security plans, that cover the entire software life cycle and, as a minimum, address the requirements of this directive with approved tailoring. | 2. Develop and maintain a Software Assurance Plan following the content defined in NASA-HDBK-2203 for a software assurance plan, including software safety. |


