TOR – ECSS Master Data Base Task Force
Draft1
04 March 2015
EUROPEAN CO-OPERATION FOR SPACE STANDARDIZATION
Terms of Reference
ECSS Master Data Base Task Force
CHANGE LOG
Draft
27 Feb. 2015
TOR first draft submitted to TA#49
1 CONTEXT OF THE TASK FORCE
The ECSS system represents a set of more than 20.000 requirements gathered in roughly
120 standards. Those generic requirements need to be tailored to the context of each
project. The tailoring, compliance and verification of this set of requirements, together with
project specific requirements, need to be exchanged between the various partners of the
customer-supplier chain at various stages of a project.
Recognizing that the above is not performed on a consistent and optimized basis, the
ECSS SB and TA came to the conclusion that migrating the ECSS system into a
requirements data base as a reference, as opposed to the current system of
documents, will enable utilization of standards in Business Agreements in a consistent
and efficient manner. Consequently, two Task Forces were set up to prepare this major
evolution:

DOORS task Force, whose objectives were:
o determine the generic core characteristics needed for an ECSS
DOORS requirements data base (on the basis of CNES/Eurospace
and ESA existing data bases) to enable requirements management
both for company/agency referential establishment/maintenance and
for project developments
o define data base detailed structure and data model based on DOORS
tool
o develop an initial ECSS DOORS data base fully coherent with the full
set of ECSS published standards (pdf files), the master of the ECSS
system remaining those published standards.

Requirements Management & Data Base Task Force objectives were:
o establish requirements management processes, within an
organization and across organizations (along the customer/supplier
chain), needed to meet efficiently space projects objectives;
o derive project user needs for requirements management and
requirements data base exchange;
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o
make recommendation for the evolution of ECSS system towards a
requirements database as a reference
The DOORS TF is still on-going but should conclude its tasks by delivering the initial
ECSS DOORS DB in July 2015 (SB meeting #52). The architecture of the DB matches the
structure of the ECSS system (one module per standard). All published standards at the
date of release of the initial DB will be captured in the DB. Full coherency between the DB
and the standards has been targeted, implying in some instances to revise published
standards to correct residual requirements drafting or identification errors.
The Requirements Management & Data Base Task Force presented their conclusions
in December 2013 at SB#49 meeting. They were synthetized in 7 recommendations, out of
which 2 dealt with ECSS requirements data base:


provide 2 exchange formats: DOORS for those companies using this tool (e.g. prime
contractors and space agencies), Excel for non DOORS users
ensure continuity from a document based system (Word, pdf) for ECSS to a requirements
data base (as master):
o keep the current ECSS structure in the DB (e.g. one DOORS module per ECSS
standard)
o generate the ECSS standards from the DB in a way which enables the use also by
non-database specialists
o requirements identifiers shall be clearly exported
The implementation of those conclusions was proposed by the TA and agreed by the SB
at SB#50 meeting with a 2 stage approach:


1st stage: start using the initial ECSS Doors DB (to be released in July 2015) in projects
while keeping the paper version (pdf, word) as the reference for the contracts
2nd stage: once the ECSS DB is sufficiently validated by significant usage on projects,
switch to a mode where the standards are exported from the DB and developed within the
DB
At this SB#50 meeting, an action item was put on the TA to propose a roadmap for this
2nd stage, i.e. the switch to an ECSS system master in the form of a DB. This roadmap
shall take into account all work performed so far on the subject (e.g. DOORS, Pretailoring/VCD, RM&DB TF). TA proposed to proceed in two steps:


First, establish a User Requirement Document (URD) for the ECSS master DB capturing
the needs of all the users of the ECSS system by characterizing their process(es). Ensure
technical feasibility of the concept defined in the URD.
Second, propose a roadmap for development/validation of the master DB and subsequent
overall transition of ECSS to “DB as master” status. Estimate needed resources for
development/validation/deployment/ maintenance of this master DB.
This proposal was made by TA and agreed by the SB. A decision was taken to create an
ECSS master DB TF to establish URD and formalize roadmap. The present ToR details
the tasks of this TF.
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2 PURPOSE
In this context, the purpose of this Task Force is twofold:

Establish User Requirement Document (URD) for the ECSS Master DB

Propose Roadmap for the development of the Master DB and for the overall
transition of the ECSS system to this reference.
3 OBJECTIVES OF THE TASK FORCE
The objectives of this Task Force are to:

Objective 1: Establish User Requirements (URD) for Master DB including all
phases (development, validation, deployment, maintenance). The following steps
are proposed:
o Consolidate overall objectives for the transition of ECSS to “DB as master”
o Identify all DB users / actors:
 Projects (agencies  primes  subcontractors)
 Standards developers (ECSS Working Groups)
 ECSS TA & Secretariat, DiFP
 …
o For each of them, characterize usage (input/outputs/process(es)) and
corresponding needs and constraints w.r.t. DB and associated tools (if
necessary). In particular, the following processes shall be covered:
 Tailoring and pre-tailoring
 Compliance
 Verification
 Requirements flow-down
 Maintenance/revision of standards
 Development of new standards
o Sketch preliminary processes integrating all foreseen usages & check
coherency / feasibility
o Derive from preceding steps, overall user requirements (URD) for ECSS
master DB and associated tools (if any).

Objective 2: Propose Roadmap for the development of the Master DB covering:
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o
o
o
o
Development /validation
Maintenance
Deployment: i.e. overall transition of the ECSS system to this DB reference
Estimation of the associated effort for each of the above tasks
4 INPUTS FOR TASK FORCE ACTIVITIES





ECSS-S-ST-00C “ECSS system - Description, implementation and general
requirements”
ECSS-S-ST-00-02C “ECSS system - Pre-tailoring and tailoring”
Requirements Management & Data Base Task Force Report, ECSS-RMDB-TF001, issue 1, June 2, 2014
DOORS Task Force report, ECSS-DOORS-TF-2011-01, 01/02/2012
Pre-tailoring Task Force report rev2, 16/11/2011, and Pre-tailoring TF later outputs
on VCD
5 ACTIVITIES
Activities shall be derived from the objectives listed in section 3 of this TOR. The Task
Force will review and further detail at kick-off meeting the various activities needed to
cover the assigned objectives.
6 MILESTONES
Planning and milestones are as follows:
 KO to finalise/agree the TOR (for further approval by the TA/SB) and preliminary
definition/agreement of activities to be performed;
 3 to 4 meetings (TBC by the TF)
 1 final review meeting of the TF report
 Presentation of the results to the TA and the SB.
Expected time frame:
 KO in April 2015
 Final review April 2016
 Final presentation to TA in June 2016 and to the SB in July 2016.
7 TASK FORCE ORGANIZATION
TASK FORCE CONVENOR:
TASK FORCE PARTICIPANTS:
TBD
EUROSPACE REP’S (INCLUDING PRIMES AND MAJOR
EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERS)
AGENCIES REP’S
ECSS SECRETARIAT
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Membership should be a mix representative of all types of ECSS Master DB potential
users, i.e.:
- Standards end users: projects and development teams,
requirements management specialists involved in projects
(DOORS users and non-DOORS users)
- Standards developers: experts contributing to ECSS WG
(DOORS users and non-DOORS users)
- Standards managers: ECSS Secretariat
8 OUTPUTS
The following outcomes are to be delivered:
 Consolidated TOR for TA/SB approval
 Task Force Report outcome and conclusions including in particular:
o
o

URD (tentatively 6 months after KO)
Roadmap + associated estimated resources
Presentation of the TF report to the TA and SB
9 ORIGINATOR
Name, Last name:
Organization:
Signature:
G. Moury
ECSS TA chairman
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