Large aerospace projects have a role called Mission Assurance. This role is closely aligned with risk management. Most risk analysis techniques assume a linear view of the world, where the scope of the analysis is defined by the organization or project structure being assessed. In complex environments where interrelationships and dispersed activities are the norm the operational risks have to be the starting point of the management of the project.
The foundation of operational risk management is Mission Assurance. Mission Assurance includes:
- Quality engineering
- Reliability
- Software assurance
- Independent Verification and Validation
- Programmatic Risk Management
The last item, programmatic risk management, is the domain of project and program management. This involves linking risk with value. This linkage addresses:
- Risks associated with the systems technical issues
- Cost and schedule risks
- Technical performance metric risks
These risk categories and others are the purview of Mission Assurance. There are formal process for defining and performing the Mission Assurance role on a project. A quick search on Google will locate them. More to come in a reading list on this topic.
