Formal Program

Overview

The Formal program switch adds the records a contract program keeps: approved departures from requirements, verification sign-off, review comments, gate review records and a statement of compliance with the customer's specification.

Turn it on in Project Preferences → Program features → Formal program. It is on automatically when the project follows the DoD or NASA process guide. Turning it off hides the pages and columns; the data stays.

Issues & Actions, opportunities in the Risk Register, evidence files, and verification stage and event are in every project. See Issues & Actions and Verification.

Concepts

All records are ordinary model entities, so they trace to the rest of the model and show in the Database.

A deviation is permission, before the product is built, to depart from a requirement. A waiver accepts a product that has been built and does not meet a requirement. Both need approval, and either can expire.

A nonconformance records that a product failed a requirement. Its disposition says what happens to the product: Use As Is, Repair, Rework, Retest, Scrap or Return to Supplier. Use As Is and Repair leave the product short of the requirement, so they need a waiver.

How to use it

When and why

Use the formal program when a customer or a review board holds you to the verification and review records:

• During design, request deviations as you find requirements you cannot meet.
• During qualification and acceptance testing, disposition each failure and sign off each requirement.
• At each gate review, collect RIDs, record the outcome and close the actions.
• During a proposal, or when the customer's specification arrives, state compliance against each of its requirements.

Disposition a failed test

1. Open Verification → Test Center and find the failed test case.
2. Click Disposition….
3. Choose the Disposition and enter the description.
4. For Use As Is or Repair, tick the waiver option to submit a waiver for the requirements the test verifies.
5. Click Record. You see NC-1 under the test case. The waiver, W-1, is Submitted on Deviations & Waivers.

The nonconformance and the waiver are one undo step.

Approve a deviation or waiver

1. Open Verification → Deviations & Waivers.
2. Click Submit on a Draft item.
3. Click Approve (or Reject). The row records your name as Approved By and today's date.

To request one before testing, click + New ▾ → Deviation… or Waiver…. Enter the name, add the requirements, and set the classification, effectivity, expiration date and justification.

Verification closure

Sign off a requirement when its verification is complete. Sign-off is a requirement-level record of who accepted the result and when.

1. Open Verification → RVTM.
2. Find a row whose Closure column shows Sign Off…. It shows when the requirement Passed, or when an approved, unexpired deviation or waiver covers it.
3. Click Sign Off…, check your name and the notes, and click Sign Off. The row shows Closed with your name and the date.

Reopen clears the sign-off after a confirmation. If the result changes after sign-off, for example a waiver is withdrawn, the row shows Closed, now Failed until you reopen or sign off again.

An approved waiver lets a requirement close, but it does not count as verified. The Waived card counts requirements that are not Passed but are covered by an approved, unexpired deviation or waiver; click it to list them. They keep their own status, such as Failed, and the Test Center's coverage line adds n waived.

Run a review with RIDs

1. Open Control & Reviews → Reviews, then the Comments (RIDs) tab.
2. Click + New RID, or Import ▾ → RIDs from CSV or Excel… for the reviewers' comment sheet.
3. Set each RID's Disposition in the row.
4. For each RID that needs work, open the row ⋯ and click Open Action…. The action appears in Issues & Actions, where its assignee works it.
5. When every action of a RID is closed, open the row ⋯ and click Close.

Record a gate review

1. Open SE Process and click Add Gate Record on the gate card, or click + New Gate Record on the Gate Records tab.
2. Enter the date, chair, attendees, review package and milestone.
3. In the detail panel, set the Outcome and add the review's actions with + New Action.
4. Export Minutes (Word) for distribution.
5. When every action is closed, click Close Review.

Answer a customer specification

1. Import the customer's requirements into a document (Needs & Requirements → Import and Export).
2. Open Needs & Requirements → Compliance Matrix and choose the document under Specification.
3. Set Compliance for each requirement.
4. Click + Response to explain partial compliance, non-compliance or how the design meets it.
5. Trace each customer requirement to your own requirements (traced to, derived by, refined by) so the matrix shows your coverage and its verification.
6. Export the matrix (Export ▾) or insert it in a document with Insert Matrix → Compliance Matrix (offered while the Formal program is on).

Worked example: the CubeSat EO-1 demo

The Formal program is already on in the demo (new projects start with it off). It holds an approved deviation, DEV-1, against requirement 4.3 Fault Detection after the safe mode test failed, an action to fix it, and a review comment (RID) on requirement 3.5. In the Test Center, mark a pointing test Failed and click Disposition…. Choose Use As Is, tick the waiver and click Record. On Deviations & Waivers, submit and approve W-1. On the RVTM, the pointing requirement now shows W-1 (Approved) and Sign Off…. Sign it off as the verification lead.

Tips and good practice

• Set an expiration date on deviations that apply to early units only. An expired deviation no longer covers its requirements.
• Keep one review package per review. RIDs filter by package.
• Add analysis reports with the Evidence number on the RVTM, so requirements verified by analysis carry their proof.

How it connects to other features

• Actions from RIDs and gate records are worked in Issues & Actions.
• Gate records link to the gates of the SE Process.
• The MCP server reads these records with get_register and adds closure, deviations and stages to RVTM rows.

Deviations & Waivers

Address: deviations (also waivers).

An approved item past its expiration date shows Expired and its row is highlighted.

Nonconformances

The second table lists each nonconformance with its test case and requirements. Set its disposition in place. For Use As Is or Repair without a waiver, Request Waiver… submits one.

Compliance Matrix

Address: compliance?doc=<id>.

Verification is the requirement's own RVTM status. When it has no test of its own, it shows the least-verified status of your requirements that answer it, marked ↳.

Review Comments (RIDs)

Address: compilations?tab=rids.

Gate Records

Address: compilations?tab=gates.

Close Review is available once every action is closed. A review that Passed with Actions then reads Passed.

Limits

• Sign-off records one person. Several approvers per requirement are not supported yet.
• Disposition values and RID severities are fixed lists.

Related

• Verification — Test Center and RVTM.
• Risks, Issues & Decisions — Issues & Actions and opportunities.
• SE Process — gates and entry criteria.
• Help: Deviations & Waivers, Compliance Matrix, Review Comments (RIDs), Gate Records.