One scheduled day each quarter. A different lens each visit.
Safety-critical programs rarely fail at milestones. They drift between them. Requirements and
code separate quietly. Coverage assumptions age. Interfaces accumulate undocumented behavior.
By the time a formal review makes the drift visible, it has usually been compounding for months.
A Program Review Cycle puts one scheduled review day on your program calendar each quarter.
Each visit applies a different lens, rotating through the areas where drift does the most damage:
- Traceability & evidence — do requirements, design, code, and verification still connect
the way your plans say they do? - Architecture & interfaces — are design decisions and interface assumptions still holding
as the implementation evolves? - Verification & coverage posture — is the verification effort still matched to the risk,
and is the coverage story still defensible? - Certification alignment — do current practices, artifacts, and assumptions still support
the certification goal?
The rotation adapts to your program phase. A program approaching a major review may want two
consecutive quarters on evidence; a program in heavy development may weight architecture and
interfaces. The structure is the constant. The focus follows the program.
Each quarter, you receive:
- A focused one-day, on-program review by an experienced safety-critical software engineer
- A short written findings summary with prioritized actions
- A running, quarter-over-quarter view of program health — so trends surface, not just snapshots
Why quarterly. Problems found in-quarter are corrected in-quarter, while they are still
small. A standing external review also provides the independent perspective that formal reviews
expect — without carrying standing overhead. And because the checkup is scheduled, it fits
planning and budgeting instead of competing with them.
Best for: active safety-critical or regulated software programs between major milestones;
organizations that want experienced independent eyes on the program at a predictable, bounded
cost.
Engagement structure: a standing arrangement of one fixed-scope review day per quarter,
scheduled around your quarterly rhythm. Each quarter's focus is agreed in advance.