Requirements management for mission preparation at the German Space Operations Center (GSOC)

Kurzfassung

Verification of a contract consisting of a lot of free text and no precise requirements is a complex task. This paper describes the approach taken at GSOC during the preparation of a geostationary communication satellite mission to make this task transparent and efficient for both the customer and the operations provider. For the management of contractual requirements the commercial software DOORS together with a few specific customizations was used. All requirements and activities related to their fulfillment were stored in a central database and linked with each other. For that reason complete traceability from contract to subsystem level tests, operational procedures, inspections and design documents could be ensured continuously. Manual generation of verification matrices was rendered unnecessary. An extraction tool made it possible to provide relevant information whenever requested to the customer who was not using DOORS. This approach also enabled verification of internal requirements and tracking of the execution status of the planned tests without additional effort.