scope:

Purpose

a. The purpose of this directive is to provide the accepted standard for quality management requirements that is used, in whole or in part, to ensure the effective and consistent implementation of quality assurance programs for NASA's missions.

b. NASA programs and projects managed in accordance with NPR 7120.5, NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements, select their unique set of quality assurance requirements from those established herein using selections based on their crew safety, technical, regulatory, programmatic objectives, and objectives imposed by other stakeholders (e.g., "do no harm"). NPR 8715.3, NASA General Safety Program Requirements, defines requirements for Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) Technical Authority (TA) review, concurrence, and/or approval of proposed requirements tailoring. NPR 8705.4, Risk Classification for NASA Payloads suggests tailoring approaches by mission risk classification for NPR 7120.5 missions. NASA Mission Directorates may provide tailoring requirements and guidelines applicable to their missions (e.g., HEOMD-003, Crewed Deep Space Systems Certification Requirements and Standards for NASA Missions.

c. This directive is organized in mission life-cycle order so that the Mission Directorates, Mission Support Division offices (e.g., Office of Chief Engineer (OCE), Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA)), NASA Centers, and other interested parties can consistently evaluate quality program execution, maturity, and effectiveness.

d. The activities described herein are generally associated with the quality assurance discipline and depend on quality assurance subject matter expertise for successful implementation. Some of the activities and requirements herein may be intertwined with the work of other discipline areas (e.g., engineering design, materials engineering, procurement, operations), depending on how the program or project is organized, on a NASA Center's organizational structure, or on an external supplier's organizational structure.

e. While a program or project may adopt a particular quality assurance technique or process described herein in their quality plan, it is assumed that they will consider the intent of the requirement or technique and will apply risk-based decision making when determining when to apply that technique on a sample basis, on a 100 percent basis, or based solely on known risk considerations (e.g., quality challenges, technology challenges, supplier past performance).

f. Programs and Projects are expected to accept the use of alternate technical standards when they meet or exceed the intents and specifications of the technical standards referenced herein and when doing so is advantageous for mission success.

g. NASA research and development projects select requirements herein as needed to satisfy regulatory and "do-no-harm" stakeholders' objectives and, when programmatically possible, to adopt requirements herein that assure technical objectives (i.e., engineering and science) are met (for additional information, see NPR 7120.8, NASA Research and Technology Program and Project Management Requirements).

h. This directive establishes the requirements used by NASA Centers to establish and maintain a quality management system for developing, manufacturing, or processing mission hardware.

Applicability

a. This directive is applicable to NASA Headquarters and NASA Centers, including Component Facilities and Technical and Service Support Centers. This language 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.

Note: See 2.4.2 regarding Program Management Offices' responsibilities for flowing down a collection of quality engineering, quality assurance, and quality management system (QMS) requirements that are appropriately tailored for the mission objectives and that are traceable to the requirements, herein, to non-Government entities who have been assigned project office responsibility (e.g., Federally-Funded Research and Development Centers, universities, and other non-governmental organizations).

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

c. This directive does not apply to quality assurance functions related to software. See NASA-STD-8739.8, Software Assurance and Software Safety Standard, and NPR 7150.2, NASA Software Engineering Requirements, for software assurance functions.

d. This directive does not apply to quality assurance functions related to the acquisition of NASA institutional facilities or to facility maintenance managed in accordance with NPR 7120.7, NASA Information Technology Program and Program and Project Management Requirements.

e. This directive does not apply to information technology (IT) services including procurements of commercial IT equipment that is not mission hardware.

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

g. In this directive, "Center Director" refers to the Center Directors, to the Director, Mission Support and Headquarters Operations, and to the directors of Component Facilities and Technical and Service Support Centers.

h. The requirements enumerated in this directive are applicable to all new programs and projects that are in Formulation Phase as of or after the effective date of this directive. (See NPR 7120.5 for definitions of program phases.) Programs and projects whose quality assurance program is currently traceable to the previously published NPR 8735.2 may choose to adhere to additional requirements herein.