In the aerospace industry, traditional release cycles are fraught with challenges. Late-stage testing often uncovers critical issues when fixes are most expensive and disruptive, delaying projects and driving up costs. System V Engineering offers a solution by embedding testing throughout the development process, turning release cycles into predictable, streamlined workflows.
When paired with Sift’s automation tools, System V Engineering further accelerates development, ensuring continuous validation while reducing risk. Together, they empower engineering teams to deliver faster, more frequent, and reliable releases without sacrificing precision or compromising system integrity.
The Challenges of a Traditional Release Cycle
With the development of any hardware project, the later stages become increasingly difficult and costly to modify, even when necessary. Traditional release cycles introduce significant risks: design flaws may go unnoticed until late-stage testing, when fixes are costly and time-consuming. Entire projects can be derailed, and interdependent programs face cascading delays. For engineering teams, the fallout is not only financial but operational, as unexpected rework disrupts carefully laid plans and diverts resources from future projects.
These challenges often manifest as:
- Escalating Costs: Fixes in later stages may require extensive redesigns, leading to budget overruns.
- Prolonged Timelines: Delays in one project cascade to dependent initiatives, compounding disruptions.
- Increased Exposure to Unknown Risks: Unforeseen issues may emerge late in the process, jeopardizing system integrity and requiring urgent, costly fixes that strain resources and disrupt plans.
This reactive approach to releases creates a cycle of unpredictability. System V Engineering breaks this cycle by redefining how testing integrates into development.
This reactive approach to releases creates a cycle of unpredictability. System V Engineering breaks this cycle by redefining how testing integrates into development.
System V: From Requirements to Reliable Release
Incorporating test definitions early in the design process is a key method in System V engineering to create predictable final test results. In this approach to hardware releases, the concept of testing the final product begins with conception during the requirements phase. As the overall system is being designed, and requirements are defined, system level verification tests can be defined in parallel. Then, sub-systems and individual components/items will be designed as well. Similar to the system level design, sub-systems and items have verification tests defined during requirements definition. The engineers involved in designing individual items have the greatest understanding of hardware tolerances for their components of the project to be able to define test conditions at this stage.
Testing and verification once again plays a major factor in the development timeline, as engineering work on items and systems is completed. Items and components are tested based on their previously defined hardware tolerances. Subsystems incorporating these individual items are integration tested, and finally the overall system is tested in accordance with the previously defined system level tests during the system level design.
This provides an end-to-end framework for ensuring that tests are defined with specific hardware tolerances and requirements known early in the development timeline, and the end product is subsequently tested under those same conditions, before green lighting the hardware release.
The System V engineering approach to this release cycle can be especially beneficial to engineers in the aerospace industry by having heavily defined testing specific to the technical details and limitations of each hardware component, prior to integration and system assembly.
A Deeper Look at the System V Workflow
The visualization emphasizes two essential principles for effective system development. First, engineer-driven test definition ensures precision and accountability by empowering engineers to define verification tests and requirements during component design using tools like Sift. Second, continuous back-testing safeguards system integrity by rigorously validating every change against prior verifications, minimizing the risk of regression and ensuring alignment with original design objectives.
1. Defining System-Level Requirements
- At the start of the development process, engineers establish the overarching specifications for the system, including functional, performance, and safety goals.
- Verification tests for the entire system are defined concurrently, ensuring alignment between goals and testing criteria.
2. Item-Level Requirements and Test Definition
- As individual components are designed, engineers define detailed requirements and corresponding tests. This early focus ensures each part meets the necessary tolerances and performance expectations.
- Engineers, who have the deepest understanding of the components they design, are empowered to create these tests, embedding institutional knowledge into the process.
3. Integrated Testing Throughout Development
- As components and subsystems are assembled, they are continuously tested against the predefined criteria. This integration minimizes surprises, validating that components function as expected individually and cohesively within subsystems.
- Final system-level tests verify that the assembled product meets its original requirements before release.
Sift: Rule-Based Automation for Data Review Checks
Incorporating a System V method of testing and releasing hardware through regular and more rapid cycles addresses many of the pain points of testing with traditional release cycles. Because the System V method calls for the definition of system level testing requirements as well as for individual components and items, it is important to ensure that the tolerances defined within said requirements are being met during the engineering development phase in order to prevent unexpected test results prior to release.
Sift incorporates a “Rules” feature which allows engineering organizations to define checks at various stages of hardware development. Sift’s “Rules” implement data review checks to ensure that developmental data gathered during the engineering process aligns with expected values defined for each hardware item or integrated subsystem, as defined during the design phase for each. With Sift, even routine updates—such as a pull request merging into a development branch—can trigger automated validation checks, ensuring that no detail is overlooked.
This continuous and automated testing allows teams to maintain the integrity of their systems without being overwhelmed by the burden of manual checks. By proactively identifying discrepancies and validating changes as they occur, Sift minimizes the risk of late-stage surprises and reduces the need for costly fixes or redesigns. In this way, Sift empowers teams to integrate testing seamlessly into their workflows, keeping projects on track and risk under control.
A major advantage of adopting a System V approach is the ability to release more frequently and with greater confidence.
Release. Release. Release.
When discussing the challenges of a traditional hardware release cycle, we mentioned the risks, costs, and technical limitations of needing to create a fix or entire new design at the end of the existing project development cycle. This, in turn, leads to a very infrequent release schedule with a significant number of changes from one release to the next. This creates a knowledge gap for end users and recipients of finalized, developed products. And in the aerospace industry especially, delays in one complete project can often cause cascading delays to other projects, both ongoing and planned, further down the timeline. Unpredictable schedules lead to further cost overruns as some projects are reliant on one another for continued development.
A major advantage of adopting a System V approach is the ability to release more frequently and with greater confidence. By testing each component individually and building a comprehensive catalog of validated items, teams can continuously test subsystems using both development data and institutional knowledge of hardware tolerances. This process ensures that no single component or subsystem delays progress. Frequent releases reduce engineering overhead, simplify each iteration, and keep the long-term goals of the project on track without sacrificing reliability or increasing risk.
Sift’s platform enhances the System V approach by introducing automation to the validation process. The “Rules” feature allows engineering teams to:
- Define Data Review Checks: Automate the validation of performance data against predefined tolerances for individual components, subsystems, and the overall system.
- Monitor Continuous Compliance: Ensure that hardware behavior aligns with design specifications throughout development, preventing costly late-stage deviations.
- Reduce Manual Effort: Replace labor-intensive manual reviews with automated checks, enabling teams to focus on design improvements and mitigating risks rather than verification overhead.
By integrating Sift’s “Rules,” engineering teams can detect and address anomalies early in the development cycle, ensuring that each stage aligns seamlessly with its testing requirements.
Engineering Peace of Mind
Developing the highly complex systems that define aerospace engineering demands precision at every step. Minimizing risk, streamlining processes, and establishing predictable workflows are critical to avoiding delays and escalating costs. As hardware releases grow in scale and complexity, so does the potential for failure—both at the component level and across interconnected subsystems—making a proactive, structured approach indispensable.
With a System V approach, releases can be broken down into smaller, more manageable, segments, defining requirements for testing in parallel with design, and creating an automated backbone for continuous hardware/tolerance checks. Using Sift’s “Rules” for automated data review checks can help establish this framework and give hardware engineers assurance that individual items are falling within testing requirements and that items will integrate together seamlessly to create larger subsystems and overall machines.
For aerospace teams looking to minimize risks, streamline processes, and maintain predictability, the System V framework offers a transformative approach. With Sift as a partner, engineering managers can ensure that their projects are on schedule and also equipped to handle unforeseen challenges.
