Electronic Procedure Verification and Workflow Management System

Procedures play a large role in successfully testing and operating complex equipment. They provide step-by-step instructions for system check-out, experimental set-up, test plans, and responding to off-nominal situations. They also provide an electronic record of all test activities. As NASAnbsp; 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, verification, and publishing process. The existing process, both at NASA and in commercial companies, is based on routing Microsoft Word documents with quot;track changesquot; turned on and obtaining physical signatures on cover pages. This process does not take advantage of new developments in on-line collaboration (e.g., systems like Google Docs) nor developments in automated verification of structured documents. The traditional procedure change management process also does not integrate with electronic procedure platforms creating silos of information.nbsp; This proposed work will build an innovative change management system for electronic procedures. This system will automatically route new or changed procedures via web servers to reviewers, collect comments and revisions for display back to the procedure author, show the changes from one version of the procedure to the next, perform automated procedure verification, and keep an audit trail from procedure development through procedure publication.nbsp; A simple interface that allows quot;one clickquot; automated 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.