Re-Engineering Complex Legacy Systems at NASA

Abstract

The Flight Production Process (FPP) Re-engineering project has established a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodology and the technological infrastructure for the design and development of a reference, product-line architecture as well as an integrated workflow model for the Mission Operations System (MOS) for human space exploration missions at NASA Johnson Space Center. The design and architectural artifacts have been developed based on the expertise and knowledge of numerous Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). The technological infrastructure developed by the FPP Re-engineering project has enabled the structured collection and integration of this knowledge and further provides simulation and analysis capabilities for optimization purposes. A key strength of this strategy has been the judicious combination of COTS products with custom coding. The lean management approach that has led to the success of this project is based on having a strong vision for the whole lifecycle of the project and its progress over time, a goal-based design and development approach, a small team of highly specialized people in areas that are critical to the project, and an interactive approach for infusing new technologies into existing processes. This project, which has had a relatively small amount of funding, is on the cutting edge with respect to the utilization of model-based design and systems engineering. An overarching challenge that was overcome by this project was to convince upper management of the needs and merits of giving up more conventional design methodologies (such as paper-based documents and unwieldy and unstructured flow diagrams and schedules) in favor of advanced model-based systems engineering approaches.