The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) Design Reference Mission (DRM) represents a suite of potential astronomical programs and targets along with their expected physical properties, and desired observation modes. This broad science program is being used to drive the observatory design in a way as fundamental as traditional engineering parameters. Astronomers use the DRM to communicate their desires in a quantitative fashion to the engineers who will eventually construct the observatory. The DRM is also the primary tool used to measure the relative value of NGST mission architectures and technological readiness of the program. Specifically, the fraction of the DRM completed by a given observatory configuration in a given time is, to first order, a measure of the value of the design. Those designs which complete a higher fraction of the observations listed below are more capable than those complete lesser fractions.