ECSS New Work Item Proposal
(including Working Group Terms of Reference)
NWIP-033
Issue 1
24 July 2014
NWIP for a new Agile Software Development Standard
CHANGE LOG
Issue 1
First issue – For TA approval (21 Oct – 21 Nov 2014)
1 Purpose of NWIP
The working group shall aim to create a new Standard on agile software development. It shall
provide a tailoring of ESA standards and guidelines for using the new industry standards on
agile software development processes in ESA projects under applicability of ECSS-E-ST-40
and ECSS-Q-ST-80.
2 Justification and Scope of document
Agile software development has gained more and more maturity in the last 10 years. It is
used in more than 60% of all software development projects worldwide. There is certain
evidence that the agile iterative approach can reduce cost by 20%, by rising in parallel quality
and user satisfaction and providing optimized risk sharing between supplier and customer.
Scrum (agile project management methods) has been made applicable in many ESA studies in
parallel to ECSS-E-ST-40 and ECSSQ--ST-80 standards without providing concrete tailoring
guidelines. Each project had to define its own tailoring bringing both different world
lean/agile and V-Model or waterfall approach together.
The experience did show good results but also problems, but lessons learned and best
practices emerged over the time and were shared in the community.
The recently released software development handbook (ECSS-E-HB-40A) is only providing a
2 page very high level overview of agile approach and does not cover agile practices or ECSS
tailoring.
The current need is to create a working group of agile experts and create an “Agile Software
Development Standard” with detailed guidelines for ECSS tailoring incl. new agile
documentation requirements and contractual formulations.
3 Intended programs and target users
The Standard shall be available for all kind of software development in European Space
Domain.
4 Inputs for WG activities
The inputs necessary for the development of the document are:
1. ECSS- E-ST-40C “Space Engineering - Software”
2. ECSS-E-HB-40A “Space engineering - Software engineering Handbook”
3. ECSS-Q-ST-80C “Space Product Assurance - Software Product Assurance”
4. ECSS-D-00A ECSS “Processes”
5. ECSS-D-00-01B “Drafting rules and templates for ECSS standards”
6. ECSS-S-ST-00-01C “ECSS System - Glossary of terms”
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ECSS New Work Item Proposal
(including Working Group Terms of Reference)
7.
8.
9.
NWIP-033
Issue 1
24 July 2014
Lessons learned and best practices from space industry and ESA (to be collected on a
common workshop)
Lessons learned and best practices from no-space industry (out of literature survey)
TBD: Whether project and configuration management shall be covered also
5 Pre-requisites
The working group will clarify document structure and requirements with the ECSS
Secretariat during kick-off of the activity. No other pre-requisites are identified.
6 Activities and tasks
The Working Group shall perform the following activities:
a.
TAAR, ES and WG shall review at kick-off the perimeter of the work and ensure that the
work is limited to the inclusion of the ECSS CR and that the drafting rules are well
understood, particularly for what is standard requirement.
b.
The WG shall start with a draft standard but wants to keep open the possibility to
transfer towards a ST if requirements appear as needed. From the experience of applying
agile SW development in ECSS context in the last years we assume that it cannot be
"pure" pre-tailoring but it will add, modify and delete requirements of both Q-ST-80C
and E-ST-40C. Approach shall be similar to Q-ST-60-13 which is making applicable many
requirements from Q-ST-60 but deletes many of them, modifies many others and adds
several requirements suitable for agile software development.
c.
The WG convenor shall submit to the TA and the Executive Secretariat a written progress
report at agreed dates, using the WG report form. If necessary, special reports and liaison
with the TAAR and DiFP to raise and resolve issues not resolved at WG level.
d. The WG convenor shall resolve with the Executive Secretariat any possible format
discrepancy with respect to the drafting rules for a standard.
e.
f.
Together with the final draft the convenor shall submit to the TA via the Executive
Secretariat, an end-of-drafting report, including:
1.
all change requests produced by the WG
2.
difficulties found during the drafting;
3.
Lessons learned.
The WG convenor shall provide to the E-40 DiFP, ES and TAAR all working documents
(i.e. minutes of meeting, progress reports and any intermediate drafts produced) for
information.
g. Before sending any Draft to the TA, the WG convenor shall submit it to the E40 DiFP and
the ES for endorsement.
h. The WG shall disposition all DRRs from the Public Review in liaison with the originator
of the DRR and update the draft accordingly.
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ECSS New Work Item Proposal
(including Working Group Terms of Reference)
NWIP-033
Issue 1
24 July 2014
7 Milestones
Once the draft written, it will be submitted to a panel of software development representative
for comments.
A final meeting will gather all the actors in order to decide the implementation of change for
a final draft proposition to the TARR and ES, before TA endorsement.
The milestones are then as follows:

T0: kick-off meeting

T0 + 9 months : draft for agile software development Standard community review

T0 +10 months : final meeting for last change implementation

T0 + 11 months : draft delivery for public review
8 WG composition
The Working Group shall consist of representatives from industry (primes and SME) and
agencies.
Convener proposition: Uwe Brauer (Airbus Defence & Space).
9 Manpower and missions
The necessary resources to perform all WG activities until completion of final draft and
disposition of comments/update of draft following public review are:

First step : 6 meetings of 1 day with 1 day preparatory works for 6 people

Second step : 1 meeting of 3 day, 6 people for final drafting
10 Outputs
The following outputs shall be provided:
 First draft of “Agile Software Development Standard/Handbook”
 The Change Requests to any other Standard, as needed to ensure the consistency of the
ECSS system
 Final draft
 End-of-drafting report
11 Originator
Name:
Uwe Brauer
Organization:
Airbus Defence & Space
Address:
Airbusallee 1, 28199 Bremen, Germany
Telephone:
+49 421 539 5526
e-mail:
Uwe.Brauer@astrium.eads.net
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