Roid Rage Spec And Ye Shall Find
May 15, 2025
Dive into the world of deep space missions on a startup budget! Discover how to break down mission requirements into actionable steps. Hear about the challenges of starting a rocket engine and the lessons learned from a thermocouple failure that nearly caused a major disaster. Explore balancing the need for reliability with budget constraints and learn how teams prioritize subsystems. Plus, insights on how to keep disagreements constructive and maintain transparency in decision-making!
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Requirements Are System Decomposition
- Requirements decompose a mission-level goal into specific, testable constraints for subsystems.
- Verification closes the loop by proving each decomposed requirement was actually checked.
Keep Requirements High-Level First
- Start requirements at a high level and decompose them only as needed for builders.
- Avoid getting stuck arguing down at detailed levels that don't inform system trade decisions.
Match Requirement Detail To Team Scale
- The detail level of requirements is chosen to match the talent you hire and scale you need.
- Large programs need exhaustive specs; small A-player teams can operate with higher-level intent.