13. Lesson: Use of Common Test Procedures
When a component is to be tested at a number of locations (e.g., the development contractor's plant, the integration contractor's plant, and the launch site), decide upon a single format and approach for the conduct of the test, for control and approval of waivers or fixes, for configuration control, and for documentation in general. Use the same basic test processes at all of the test sites.
Background:
Each organizational element (contractor of government) has, in general, developed a "standard" method of handling the routine of conducting development tests. Without early management attention and control, test procedures from one test site will not be transportable to the next level of test integration, and much effort (dollars) will be needed to rewrite the documentation.
For example, the MDA test procedures used to prepare the module at the Martin-Denver plant were rewritten when it was tested with the Airlock at the MDAC St. Louis plant, and further modified when the module was shipped to KSC for testing.
Caution: do not minimize the seriousness of this problem which cannot be simply solved by decree. Transferring test procedures between test organizations is not without problems as well. The "angry Alligator" of Gemini II (a payload shroud on the docking target did not completely separate, and the resultant partially deployed configuration prevented docking) was the result of the use of a procedure by technicians who were not familiar with the practices and terminology of another organization. The optimum method is to use a common test team as well as procedures. The ATM test team followed the hardware from MSFC to JSC to KSC, but even then, careful planning was needed since inspection and safety and documentation requirements are not the same, and common practices must be adapted.
These lessons learned are from SKYLAB LESSONS LEARNED AS APPLICABLE TO A LARGE SPACE STATION, A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The School of Engineering and Architecture Of the Catholic University of America For the Degree Doctor of Engineering by William C. Schneider, Washington, D.C., 1976.
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