NASA Procedural Requirements

NPR 8705.6D Effective Date: March 29, 2019 Expiration Date: December 29, 2024

Subject: Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) Audits, Reviews, and Assessments

Responsible Office: Office of Safety and Mission Assurance

Appendix A. Definitions

Assessment. An activity that uses a set of concepts and principles, not a standard, to evaluate the accuracy, efficiency and/or effectiveness of an entity.

Audit. A formal evaluation of compliance with SMA policies, procedures, processes, requirements, specifications, baselines, standards, instructions, codes, and contractual and licensing requirements.

Audit, Review, and Assessment Point of Contact. A person from the organization being audited, reviewed, or assessed who ensures that the audited organization is prepared for the audit, review, and assessment; coordinates the audit schedule with the audit, review, and assessment team; ensures that the appropriate personnel from the audited organization are available during the audit and can support the audit schedule; ensures that the audit, review, and assessment team has resources onsite to enable the completion of the audit (such as working space and information technology support).

Audit, Review, and Assessment Report. A document providing a record of an audit, review, or assessment results.

Audit, Review, and Assessment Team. A team comprising subject matter experts from NASA Headquarters, NASA Centers, and, if necessary, non-NASA organizations selected to conduct the SMA audits, reviews, and assessments.

Center SMA Director. As used in this directive, this term includes all Center management personnel designated by the Center Director to implement SMA audits, reviews, and assessments requirements.

Finding. A conclusion based on facts and objective evidence or lack thereof established during SMA audits, reviews, and assessments.

Flow down. The documented demonstration that a Center, program or project is operating in accordance with the Agency requirements through references to either each requirement of the Agency documents, or a general "shall" statement denoting the Agency document within the Center document. Flow down is accomplished by a Center document "shall" statement that invokes the Agency requirement, a generic shall statement identifying the Agency document within the Center document, references to each Agency requirement in the Center document, or a more stringent, Center-specific requirement identified in the Center document.

Institutional, Facility, Operational Safety Audit. An independent audit of NASA Center compliance with institutional, facility, and operational SMA requirements.

Mission Assurance Process Map. The mission assurance process map is a high-level, graphical representation of governing SMA policy and requirements, processes, and key participant roles, responsibilities, and interactions. It also includes the reporting structure that constitutes a program's/project's SMA functional flow.

Mission Assurance Process Matrix. The mission assurance process matrix is constructed to identify program life cycle assurance agents and specific assurance activities, processes, responsibilities, accountability, depth of penetration, and independence. The matrix includes key assurance personnel in Engineering, Manufacturing, Program Management, Operations, and SMA.

Objective Evidence. Data verifying or supporting the existence of a finding or compliance to requirements. Objective evidence may be obtained through observation, measurement, test, or other means and is not influenced by prejudice, emotion, or bias. Examples of objective evidence include, but are not limited to, procedures, records, work instructions, databases, reports, organizational charts, interviews, hardware, facilities test reports, configuration control documentation (i.e., drawings and specifications), mishap reports, corrective actions, and lessons learned.

Quality Audit, Assessment, and Review. An independent verification that each NASA Center, program, and project is in compliance with the applicable NASA SMA quality assurance and software assurance requirements.

Review. An activity that proposes to figure out how well the thing being reviewed is capable of achieving established objectives. Reviews ask the following question: is the subject (or object) of the review a suitable, adequate, effective, and efficient way of achieving established objectives.

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