The tailoring of compliance documents in the acquisition of space systems is often controversial and drawn-out. Traditional approaches to standards tailoring rely on customer and contractor subject matter experts (SMEs) coming to agreement on the adaptation of multiple government and voluntary consensus standards to a particular mission, a process that is typically costly, time consuming, and challenging. While there is significant guidance on tailoring missions by risk class, there is little guidance on the actual process of tailoring. This document lays out a “code of conduct” for standards tailoring that aims to reduce the time, cost, and challenges of standards tailoring.
