Chapter 8
Essential Reliability Technology Disciplines in Development
“Trust, but verify”.
Russian proverb
8.1 Overview
The primary objective of the development phase of an electronic equipment acquisition programme is to verify that all customer design requirements have been fully satisfied before transfer to manufacturing. In order to achieve this objective, the preparation of adequate test planning must be verified in close collaboration with the customer and any subcontractors at the programme-initiation phase.
Test plans must address the intent to test or not to test, with rationale, each and every functional and performance requirement contained within the product Design Requirement Specification if the cost and schedule implications are to be fully understood and taken into account.
A Design Qualification Test strategy that is biased towards the preparation of milestone review inputs that provide progression to the next milestone without disclosure of opportunities for design improvement, is likely to be a significant contributor to the erosion of cost, schedule and reliability targets. If failure-free aspirations are to be fulfilled, it is just as important that funds and resources are scheduled for improving designs as it is for proving them. Every failure, weakness and omission that becomes visible in the product-development phase must be treated as an opportunity for improvement, not as a cause for blame or concealment. It for this reason that a Failure Reporting, Analysis, ...
