scope:

Purpose

a. This directive establishes general requirements and procedures for NASA to ensure that information concerning significant problems involving parts, materials, processes, software, and safety is exchanged internally and externally. The proper utilization of this data can improve the total quality, reliability, and maintainability of systems and components during the acquisition and logistic phases of the life cycle while reducing costs in the development and manufacture of complex systems and equipment.

b. This directive provides procedures for authoring, distributing, assessing, and responding to shared instances of problem reports including NASA Advisories and Government Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP) Alerts, GIDEP Safe-Alerts, GIDEP Problem Advisories, and GIDEP Agency Action Notices, hereafter collectively called GIDEP Notices.

Applicability

a. This directive is applicable to NASA Headquarters, NASA Centers, including Component Facilities, and Technical and Service Support Centers. This NPR applies to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (a Federally Funded Research and Development Center), other contractors, recipients of grants, cooperative agreements, or other agreements only to the extent specified or referenced in the applicable contracts, grants, or agreements.

b. In this directive, all mandatory actions (i.e., requirements) are denoted by statements containing the term "shall." The terms: "may" or "can" denote discretionary privilege or permission, "should" denotes a good practice and is recommended, but not required, "will" denotes expected outcome, and "are/is" denotes descriptive material.

c. In this directive, document citations are assumed to be the latest version, unless otherwise noted.