Electronic Procedure Verification and Workflow Management System

Procedures play a large role in successfully operating complex test equipment. They provide step-by-step instructions for system check-out, experimental set-up, test plans, and responding to off-nominal situations. As NASA moves away from traditional paper procedures to more flexible electronic procedures, there is an opportunity for a more flexible and efficient electronic procedure review, approval, and publishing process.The proposed workflow management system would automatically route new or changed procedures via web servers to reviewers, collect comments and revisions for display back to the procedure author, perform automated procedure verification, and keep an audit trail from procedure development through procedure publication. By tying into the NASA identity management system, electronic sign-off would be more efficient than physical signatures. A simple interface that allows “one click” verification and publishing of a new or revised procedure once all approvals have been given would greatly increase the usefulness of electronic procedures in test environments. TRACLabs has an existing electronic procedure platform, PRIDE, that is currently used by many NASA projects, including the X-57 program, and commercial companies. TRACLabs proposes to extend its PRIDE platform by developing an innovative procedure workflow management system that can be customized for each organization.