Requirements Management in Aerospace Engineering

Requirements Management in Aerospace Engineering

Requirements management is the process of identifying, documenting, and managing the needs and constraints of a system. It is essential to the success of aerospace projects as it helps to mitigate risk, ensure traceability, and streamline the development process.

Aerospace engineering is a highly complex and safety-critical field, with strict requirements for compliance and certification. Requirements management is a critical aspect of aerospace engineering, as it ensures that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the system requirements and that they are met throughout the development process.

The Requirements Management Process

The requirements management process is a crucial step in the aerospace engineering lifecycle. It typically consists of several stages including: requirements elicitation, analysis, documentation, and verification.

  • Requirements elicitation is the process of gathering information from stakeholders to determine their needs and constraints.
  • Analysis is the process of reviewing and refining the requirements to ensure they are clear, consistent, and achievable.
  • Documentation is the process of recording the requirements in a clear and concise manner.
  • Verification is the process of ensuring that the requirements have been met.

One of the best tools for this process is Valispace, a powerful requirements management solution that allows engineering teams to easily manage and trace their requirements.

Valispace allows teams to collaborate in real-time, ensuring that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the requirements.

It also allows for easy traceability, making it easy to track changes and ensure compliance with standards such as DO-178C. Additionally, Valispace has a built-in test management system, allowing teams to easily plan and execute tests.

Managing Complexity in Aerospace Requirements

The complexity of aerospace systems can make requirements management a challenging task. This complexity is often due to the large number of interacting systems and components involved in an aircraft or spacecraft.

To manage this complexity, model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is often used. MBSE is a methodology that uses models to represent the system and its requirements. This allows engineers to more easily understand and manage the requirements of the system.

Valispace, being a management platform, also allows to manage these complex systems by allowing teams to define their system hierarchy and establish relationships between requirements and components. This way, teams can easily navigate through their system and understand how requirements are implemented in their hardware.

Additionally, Valispace allows for easy version control and traceability, making it easy to track changes and ensure compliance with standards such as DO-178C.

A Guide to Efficient Hardware Development

 

Compliance and Certification

Compliance with regulatory standards is a critical aspect of aerospace engineering. Standards such as DO-178C specify the requirements for software used in airborne systems. Requirements management is crucial for ensuring compliance with these standards, as it provides a clear and traceable record of the requirements and their implementation.

Valispace allows teams to easily ensure compliance by providing a clear and traceable record of the requirements and their implementation. It also allows teams to easily link requirements to specific regulatory standards, such as DO-178C. Additionally, Valispace has built-in templates for safety-critical systems, making it easy for teams to ensure compliance with industry standards.

Case Study of Successful Requirements Management in Aerospace Engineering

One example of successful requirements management in aerospace engineering is the cabin development of the Airbus A350. The A350 is a state-of-the-art aircraft that requires the management of thousands of requirements.

The engineering team used Valispace to manage and trace their requirements, allowing them to easily collaborate and ensure compliance with regulatory standards. By using Valispace, the team was able to streamline their development process and successfully deliver the A350 on schedule.

Top 5 Requirements Management Tools for aerospace and defense

Valispace:

Valispace is a software tool designed for requirements management in aerospace engineering projects. It allows teams to manage and trace requirements, BOMs and interfaces, and also to collaborate on design and testing.
Valispace is the only solution here that links requirements (and components) to technical data and engineering values. Meaning that if requirement parameters change somewhere in the project, you’ll automatically see the effect that this has on the overall system. Speak with our experts and see how Valispace fits in to your engineering workflow today

IBM Rational DOORS:

IBM Rational DOORS is a widely used requirements management tool that offers a range of features such as traceability, impact analysis, and requirements management. It is well suited for aerospace engineering companies that need to manage complex, technical projects.
IBM DOORS can be quite complex and difficult to learn, especially for users who are not familiar with requirements management tools.

Jama Software:

Jama Software also has capabilities like traceability, collaboration, and impact analysis. It is well suited for aerospace engineering companies that need to manage large, complex projects.
A limitation of Jama Software for hardware engineers is that it may not be as well suited for projects with a high degree of technical complexity.

ReqView:

ReqView offers a range of features such as traceability, collaboration, and impact analysis. It is particularly well suited for aerospace engineering companies that need to manage large, complex projects and need to collaborate with remote teams.
ReqView may not be as well suited for projects with a high degree of technical complexity and may not offer all the functionalities as other more complex tools.

Helix RM:

Helix RM offers traceability, collaboration, and impact analysis. It is a good option for aerospace engineering companies and can integrate with other tools such as JIRA, Confluence, and more.

Helix RM may not be suitable for product development with a great deal of technical intricacy, and might not provide all the features that other more complete requirements tools do.

Current and Future Trends

The aerospace industry is constantly evolving, and requirements management is no exception. The latest trends in aerospace requirements management include the use of artificial intelligence, big data, and agile methodologies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to automate parts of the requirements management process, such as requirements elicitation and analysis. This can help to reduce the time and effort required to manage requirements, and can also help to identify requirements that may have been missed.

Big data is also playing an increasingly important role in aerospace requirements management. The vast amounts of data generated by aerospace systems can be used to improve the management of requirements, by providing insights that would otherwise be impossible to obtain.

Agile methodologies are also becoming more popular in aerospace requirements management. These methodologies focus on flexibility and adaptability, allowing teams to respond quickly to changes in requirements. This can be especially important in the aerospace industry, where requirements can change rapidly due to advances in technology or changes in regulations.

Valispace being a management platform, also adapts to these trends by integrating AI and Big Data capabilities to its platform. It also allows for agile methodologies, with its built-in change management system and interactive Gantt chart.

Next Steps

Requirements management is a critical aspect of aerospace engineering that helps to ensure the success of aerospace projects.

It helps to mitigate risk, ensure traceability, and streamline the development process. The latest trends in aerospace requirements management include the use of artificial intelligence, big data, and agile methodologies.

Valispace is a powerful requirements management solution that allows engineering teams to easily manage and trace their requirements, and also adapt to these current and future trends. To ensure the success of aerospace projects, it is important for engineering teams to have a robust requirements management process in place.

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