Software Quality Assurance-Challenges in Launch Vehicle Projects

  • Poofa Gopalan Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram
  • S.S. Uma Sankari Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram
  • D. Mohan Kumar Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram
  • R. Vikraman Nair Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram
Keywords: Software quality assurance, launch vehicle, testing, simulation, verification, validation, software fault injection

Abstract

Launch vehicle projects now depend on software, more than ever before, to ensure safety
and efficiency. Such critical software syfiems, which can lead to injury, destruction or loss of
vital equipment, human lives, and damage to environment, must be developed and verified with
high level of quality and reliability. An overview of current quality practices pursued in launch
vehicle projects is presented in this paper. These practices have played a vital role in the successful
launch vehicle missions of Indian Space Research Organisation. As complexity of software
increases, the activity that gets affected is nothing but, software quality assurance (SQA). The
SQA team is facing a lot of challenges in current practices. This paper brings out such challenges
in different phases of software life cycle. A set of key points to some techniques and tools, that
could contribute to meet the software quality 'assurance challenges in launch vehicle projects,
are also discussed.
Published
2006-01-01
How to Cite
Gopalan, P., Sankari, S., Kumar, D., & Nair, R. (2006). Software Quality Assurance-Challenges in Launch Vehicle Projects. Defence Science Journal, 56(1), 31-38. https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.56.1865