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Managing Software Process Evolution pp 137–163Cite as

Managing Software Process Evolution for Spacecraft from a Customer’s Perspective

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Abstract

The Space Administration of the German Aerospace Center designs and implements the German space program. While project management rests with the agency, suppliers are contracted for building devices and their software. As opposed to many other domains, a spacecraft is a unique device with uncommon and custom-built peripherals. Its software is specifically developed for a single mission only and often controls critical functionality. A small coding error can mean the loss of the spacecraft and mission failure. For this reason, customer and supplier closely collaborate on the field of software quality. We report from a customer’s perspective on how we manage software quality and ensure that suppliers evolve their processes: We contribute to standards, tailor quality, and process requirements to establish them in projects, and engage in cross-company product quality collaboration.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR - Space Administration, Königswinterer Straße, 522-524, 53227, Bonn, Germany

    Christian R. Prause, Markus Bibus, Carsten Dietrich & Wolfgang Jobi

Authors
  1. Christian R. Prause
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  2. Markus Bibus
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  3. Carsten Dietrich
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  4. Wolfgang Jobi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian R. Prause .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Marco Kuhrmann

  2. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Jürgen Münch

  3. University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Ita Richardson

  4. Technische Universität Clausthal, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany

    Andreas Rausch

  5. Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    He Zhang

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Prause, C.R., Bibus, M., Dietrich, C., Jobi, W. (2016). Managing Software Process Evolution for Spacecraft from a Customer’s Perspective. In: Kuhrmann, M., Münch, J., Richardson, I., Rausch, A., Zhang, H. (eds) Managing Software Process Evolution. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31545-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31545-4_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31543-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31545-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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