File Formats
Documentation of design shall be maintained in the following formats (where applicable):

1. Requirement documentation: Word (or RTF equivalent) and PDF
2. Mechanical drawings: IGES and OpenDWG
3. Software documentation: Word (or RTF equivalent) and PDF
4. Parts lists: Excel and (when available) PDM/PLM

Engineering Units
Due to the international nature of SSM’s projects, all engineering measurements shall be documented using the metric system. SI Units are preferred but not required.

Documenting measurements along with English unit equivalents in parentheses, e.g. 100 km (62.14 miles), are only recommended in marketing materials.

References:
Commonly used metric units:
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/common.html

Overview on the metric system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system

Official documentation on SI Units:
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/units.html 

Safety Critical System Engineering
Applicable standards: RTCA DO-178B, MISRA-C, IEC 61508 (TBD?)

Several items are common to any certifiable systems:
- Requirement analysis
- Design reviews and peer reviews
- Verification testing (unit-, module-, sub-system-, system- and vehicle-level)
- Traceability (requirements to designs to implementation to tests)
- Documentation
- Configuration Management

A FMECA shall be performed at the vehicle level.

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Applicable standards: SAE J1739

Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a method (first developed for systems engineering) that examines potential failures in products or processes. The result from a FMEA will provide Systems engineering with data to address the most critical potential failure modes in the design.

The process begins with a system-level design (block diagrams, connectivity diagrams, interface specification, preliminary parts lists, etc.). A FMEA is performed and possible failure modes and their criticalities are determined. System Engineering will then revise the design for improved reliability and perform FMEA again to verify the design. System Engineering may also perform a FMEA on a lower level functionality.

FMEA may be performed at different level of design decomposition:
- Design Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (DFMEA)
- Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)
- Component FMEA

General information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_mode_and_effects_analysis

Other Notes:

About Wikipedia References
While Wikipedia provides a huge amount of useful and royalty-free information, care should be taken when using Wikipedia and any databases or knowledge bases created by individual contributors using “open-source” style methods. Information from Wikipedia may not be used as formal technical references because the sources of the articles and their professional credentials cannot be independently verified. Due to the safety-critical nature of SSM’s projects, failure to adhere to this guideline may result in severe injuries or deaths.