Risk/requirements trade-off guidelines for low cost satellite systems

The accelerating trend toward Faster, Better, Cheaper (FBC) missions places increasing emphasis on the trade-offs between requirements and risk to reduce cost and development times, while still improving quality and reliability. The Risk/Requirements Trade-off Guidelines discussed in this paper are part of an integrated approach to address the main issues by focusing on the sum of prevention, analysis, control or test (PACT) processes. This approach maps weighted risk (or failure modes) against detection or prevention options to provide a mechanism for performing risk/resource tradeoffs. The population of this matrix can be done a “row at a time” by examining the value added of each requirement or PACT, in terms of risk reduction. This row by row development is the principle focus of the guidelines described herein. Cost drivers in the performance of these specific areas are identified for potential trade-off studies. Parametric trade-offs that would be cost effective are indicated and effective substitutes for specific requirements are discussed