Open Source Community-Built Software Standards for Space and Ground Software. An Overview of the Software Lifecycle Improvement Modernization (SLIM) Project from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Software Lifecycle Improvement Modernization (SLIM) initiative at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), sponsored by the NASA’s Advanced Multi-Mission Operations System (AMMOS) effort, represents an advancement in the rapid infusion of software development best practices for space and ground software. It is a shared, open-source resource for discussing, iterating, and referencing best practices for software development. It draws on strategic insights from NASA JPL’s internal and external open-source initiatives, and it has been field- tested widely at JPL across hundreds of software project repositories. SLIM champions the development, iteration, and widespread dissemination of standardized software development best practices and is aimed at collectively maturing sub-topics such as project governance, software lifecycle automation, and software documentation through a participatory and open community model. SLIMs methodology harnesses a standards-as-code philosophy, where best practices are not only developed openly through community contributions and feedback but are patchable directly into project codebases or deployable via infrastructure enhancements, including using generative artificial intelligence techniques. This unique approach allows for the scalable dissemination of improvements makes a tangible impact on space-related software project performance and significantly reduces infusion barriers for software user, developer, and stakeholder communities. SLIM’s best practices, encompassing artifacts like templates, workflow automation, or software starter kits are open-source licensed and free to use and iterate. We explore the SLIM initiative in detail, focusing on its three-phase process for infusing best practices: soliciting input and feedback from a community of projects, developing actionable standards encodable as patched improvements, and directly pushing these improvements into active project codebases through software pull requests and issue tickets. We also highlight the community-driven aspect of SLIM, discussing the network of contributors who are pivotal in curating and advancing the SLIM repository of best practices, as well as the results of our overall process.