Challenges with Software Verification and Validation Activities in the Space Industry

Developing software for high-dependable space applications and systems is a formidable task. With new political and market pressures on the space industry to deliver more software at a lower cost, optimization of their methods and standards need to be investigated. The industry has to follow standards that strictly set quality goals and prescribes engineering processes and methods to fulfill them. The overall goal of this study is to evaluate if current use of the standards from the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) is cost efficient and if there are ways to make the process leaner while still maintaining quality and to analyze if their verification and validation (V&V) activities can be optimized. This paper presents results from two industrial case studies of companies in the European space industry that are following ECSS standards in various V&V activities. The case studies reported here focus on how ECSS standards are used by the companies, how that affects their processes and, in the end, how their V&V activities can be further optimized.