Agile Embedded System Development versus European Space Standards

Introduction

Agile development methods have gained significant popularity in software engineering. They aim to make the product development more efficient and flexible without causing additional strain to the engineers. Agile methods also aim to improve collaboration between engineers and customers so that the product fulfils the actual requirements and the problems may be identified as early as possible during the development process (Larman, 2004).

ECSS standards (European Cooperation for Space Standardization) are commonly used in space projects of the European space industry, mostly organized by ESA (European Space Agency). Many European space projects are distributed among many subcontractors of which many are small and medium enterprises developing embedded systems. Their interest in adopting agile methods in embedded system development raises questions about applicability of agile methods in the projects controlled by ECSS standards.

Utilizing agile methods in the development of complex safety- and mission-critical space systems can be challenging. Predominant standards and regulations can limit the utilization of several product development practices and instruct how the work shall be done. However, concurrent engineering practices, which share characteristics with agile development, have already been utilized in the European space industry, especially in the early phases of mission projects of European Space Agency.

In this paper, the ECSS standards are reviewed to identify the conflicts that arise when agile methods are applied in embedded system development in complex space system projects. First, the background aspects, including agile development, the ECSS standards and related studies, are presented. Then the utilized research method for systematic processing of the standards is presented. Finally, the conflicting and non-conflicting standards are reviewed and the mitigation of the conflicts is discussed to draw the conclusions.