NASA Study on Flight Software Complexity

Abstract

*In 2007 the NASA Office of Chief Engineer commissioned a multi-center study to bring forth technical and managerial strategies to address risks from growth in size and complexity of flight software in NASA’s space missions. The motivation for the study grew from problems attributed to flight software in a variety of missions—in both pre-launch and post-launch activities—and concerns that such problems were growing with the expanding role of flight software. The study was tasked to examine the growth in flight software size and complexity, recommend ways to reduce and better manage complexity, and identify methods of testing complex logic. This report examines complexity throughout the engineering lifecycle—from requirements definition through design, development, verification, and operations—and presents sixteen findings and associated recommendations.