Guide to Lean Requirements for Space Engineering

Alkaios Bournias Varotsis, Ph.D.

| Created: February 12, 2026

Guide to Lean Requirements for Space Engineering

Fill out the form to get access to Altium’s guide, Lean Requirements for NewSpace: How to Iterate Faster Without Breaking Traceability.

While space program announcements are growing rapidly, only about 5% of 400-plus satellite constellations are considered launched, with the vast majority still in early development or delayed by 6 to 12 months — and often longer.

This guide provides practical strategies to modernize requirements management within existing engineering workflows, without hindering your team’s ability to iterate quickly.

Learn how effective requirements management can prevent cascading failures that end one out of three space programs.

Our team compiled insights on how space teams manage complexity, traceability, and verification under extreme schedule and reliability constraints — and how to adapt these practices to your projects.

What You’ll Learn?

How to avoid common pitfalls, based on practitioner insights
Which practices are shown to improve engineering collaboration
How to pick the right requirements tool
What effective requirements traceability looks like in practice
How AI can add value to requirements workflows

Who Should Read This Guide?

You’re building a NewSpace constellation with a lean engineering team.
You’re leading a traditional aerospace team and looking to modernize your processes.
You’re working in a different industry and seeking transferable lessons that apply to your projects.

Are you looking for a tool to put theory into practice? Altium’s Requirements Portal enables you to manage engineering requirements in a tool accessible to your whole team.

About Author

About Author

Alkaios is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Altium, where he leads go-to-market efforts for Requirements & Systems Portal. With over a decade of experience in advanced engineering design and manufacturing, he’s passionate about making new technologies and modern design practices accessible to broader teams. His background spans both hardware and software domains, with previous roles at nTop and 3D Hubs, where he worked with engineering teams on generative design, DfM, and agile engineering processes. He holds a Ph.D. in additive manufacturing and printed electronics from Loughborough University, UK.

More content by Alkaios Bournias Varotsis, Ph.D.

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