NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) has deployed a new requirements accessibility platform to replace the Safety and Mission Assurance Requirements Tracking System (SMARTS). This completes the first step in an effort to improve management and accessibility of OSMA requirements.

The new platform is implemented in Cradle, a commercial-off-the-shelf requirements management tool used by various agency programs. Cradle was selected to reduce costs, increase flexibility, improve version and change control, and provide the capability to interface with other requirements management and systems engineering tools.

Although the NASA Online Directives Information System (NODIS) will continue to be the official repository of NASA Policy Directives and NASA Policy Requirements, Cradle makes information more accessible by allowing cross-document requirements searches. This enables the creation of specialized reports and the association of additional information such as requirement basis, history, explanatory notes and examples to help with understanding of requirements.

This initial deployment does not include the full capabilities envisioned for the system. We will continue to make improvements as we gain understanding of Cradle and learn more about user needs through use of the system. We welcome comments and suggestions. The goals are to improve search and query capabilities and to facilitate improved flow-down from agency-wide requirements.

Access can be requested through the NASA Access Management System (NAMS) by following these steps:

1. Click “Access Management.”
2. Click “Request or Modify Application Account.”
3. Search for and select “Enhanced ICE Cradle.”
4. Under “Request Details” for “Choose Level,” select “ICE Cradle Web Only” and then “OSMA Project.”

SMARTS users also will need to follow these steps to request access to the new system; access is not automatically granted.