Assessment of Defect Type influence in Complex and Integrated Space Systems: Analysis Based on ODC and ISVV Issues

Safety or mission critical systems are those where failures should be avoided at all costs. Engineering processes, techniques and tools are, however, not perfect, and lead to software and systems with flaws. This paper presents an analysis of the impact of late found issues versus the fault types for critical aerospace systems. These issues are the independently detected faults that remain once the engineering processes that are required by European space standards have been applied and the engineering teams have performed their verification and validation activities. This study presents the analysis of the fault impact versus fault type distribution according to the detection phases and to the issues severity/type and presents recommendations to improve space systems engineering.