REQUIREMENTS MANAGEMENT/TRACEABILITY: A CASE STUDY - NASA'S NATIONAL LAUNCH SYSTEM

Poorly defined and poorly managed system requirements result in increased programmatic costs. To stay within the bounds of cost and schedule and to ensure a quality end product, concise, well managed and traceable systems requirements are a necessity. This paper will discuss the implementation of the requirements management tool, Document Director, at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) as related to the definition and management of the launch vehicle system level requirements for the National Launch System (NLS). In addition, the set-up process, immediate and projected benefits to systems engineers, and lessons learned from implementing a systems engineering based requirements management tool on a major aerospace program will be described. © 1992 The Authors.