An Introduction to Dynamic Analysis

Traditionally, flight software IV&V concentrates on analyzing intermediate products from the software development process. This static analysis is the direct analysis of the form and structure of a product without executing it, including reviews, inspections, audits and dataflow analysis.

This approach ignores the final binary image loaded to the spacecraft hardware environment and its behavior in response to dynamic conditions in a spacecraft operations environment. This can be addressed with another IV&V technique called dynamic analysis – testing (through execution or simulation) of a developed product to detect errors by analyzing the response of the product to sets of input data where the range of output is known.

To explore how NASA’s IV&V Program can provide dynamic analysis services to meet your specific needs, please contact Marcus Fisher at 304.367.8337 or ivv-dynamic-analysis@lists.nasa.gov.