AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO RISK ASSESSMENT FOR CONCURRENT DESIGN Leila Meshkat, Luke Voss, Martin Feather, Steve Cornford Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA 9 11 09 Absfract This paper describes an approach to risk assessment and analysis suited to the early phase, concurrent design of a space mission. The approach integrates an agile, multi-user risk collection tool, a more in-depth risk analysis tool, and repositories of risk information. A JPL developed tool, named RAP, is used for collecting expert opinions about risk from designers involved in the concurrent design of a space mission. Another in-house developed risk assessment tool, named DDP, is used for the analysis. The risk model in DDP is generated by integrating the information collected in RAP, other design inf~~mation available from the design sessions, and possibly risk and failure information available from other libraries and databases. The underlying software infrastructure for this transfer of information is based on translating the RAP data to XML, which in turn is interpreted by DDP and translated to DDP data. The advantage of the integration is its combination of the strengths of the components, while avoiding the need to construct a single monolithic all-encompassing tool and process. I. Background The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) employed the concept of concurrent engineering to create the Advanced Projects Design Team (Team X) in April 1995. This team produces conceptual designs of space missions for the purpose of analyzing the feasibility of mission ideas proposed by its customers. The customers often consist of principal investigators of design teams who aim to plan new mission proposals. The study takes one to two weeks and the design is then documented in a 30 to 80-page report that includes equipment lists, mass and power budgets, system and subsystem descriptions, and a projected mission cost estimate. The study is then rwiewed 2 ~ d swiiizirized zifid zfi zbbre-vizti*,ed report is also produced. The project design team consists of 20 engineers, each representing a different discipline, and a team leader. Table 1 shows the disciplines. The team leader coordinates and facilitates the mission design process and interacts with the customers to ensure that their objectives are properly captured and represented in the design. Engineers are equipped with techniques and software packages used in their area of expertise and interact with the team leader and other We briefly describe each of the RAP and engineers to study the feasibility of the proposal DDP and demonstrate the integated and produce the optimal design for their specific with an generated from a subsystem within their feasible region. Often, at the Project Design Center (TeamX) there are conflicting or competing objectives for at JPL. various subsystems and many trade studies are conducted between subsystem experts in real