8-Systems Engineering Management Flashcards
MANAGEMENT
Don’t forget that Systems Engineering cover:
- Design
- Development of a solution
- MANAGEMENT all the process to deliver expect outcomes minimizing risks.
KEY MANAGEMENT ISSUES
1-Testing progressively the system. Taking care of costs, time and risks
2-Managing the configuration (documentation, procedures)
3-Risk, strategies to minimize occurrence or impact. Not only identify, address it!
4-Progressive reviews (always address issues earliest as possible)
5-Workable technical approach (waterfall/incremental/agile/?)
6-Planning
VERIFYING AND VALIDATING THE SYSTEM
Why? Design, components, subsystems and wholly system meets it specified requirements.
Progressive, during and at the end of each phase.
-Design
-Development/Production
-Acceptance test
-also during utilization stage
TOPICS TO BE VALIDATED
A validated systems implies: 1-systems itself 2-people 3-training system 4-support environment 5-integration with external systems
PLANNING THE EVALUATION
Key concept:
Plan early to ensure time, money and desired results
MANAGING CONFIGURATION
Set and maintain version control of everything we produce.
- documentation
- hardware required
- software
- interfaces
FOUR BASIC ELEMENTS TO CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
1-Identify everything that we have to keep under control. Communicate to everybody!
2-Maintain an accurate status of the configuration of ALL items (status accounting)
3-Change management
4-Periodic audit to verify everything is accurate
Don’t forget to notify to all the team.
Poor audits implies problems at acceptance test or utilization phase.
MANAGING TECHNICAL RISKS
- Risk is the chance of something happening that will impact on us.
- Risks are thought as a function of both likelihood and impact (consequence)
- Severity is determined by probability and impact.
- So Systems Engineering as a discipline could be thought of as a TECHNICAL RISK MANAGEMENT DISCIPLINE
Examples of RISKS
1-Schedule risk (later)
2-Cost risk (more expensive)
3-Technical risks: result system don’t satisfy
–function and performance
–couldn’t be maintained accordingly with support concept
–reliability required
–development budget (to expensive to build)
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING APPROACH TO MANAGE RISKS
- Conducting progressive reviews
- Rolling evaluation programs and audits
HOW MANAGE TECHNICAL RISKS?
1-Avoiding them
2-Reducing them by lowering likelihood and/or impact
3-Transferring to a third party more suited to handle it/them.
REDUCING RISKS by design
1-Alternative design that minimizes likelihood of the risk.
2-Build new system with spare capacity to handle future increments.
3-Add Redundancy components
4-Alternative or diversity of sources
RISKS RETURN EVALUATION
Always take in account impact of any risk and costs to mitigate it.
Sometimes we prefer to accept it due potential benefits. Examples: using edge development technologies.
Always identify and determine way as early as possible!
ADDRESSING RISKS THRU REVIEWS
1-Stakeholders requirements with SYSTEM DESIGN REVIEW
2-Preliminary design with PRELIMINARY DESIGN REVIEW
3-Design with CRITICAL DESIGN REVIEW
CONDUCTING DESIGN REVIEWS
Technical meetings that have to run professionally: 1-agenda 2-minutes 3-chairpersons in control 4-Conditions to start 5-Conditions to end (outcomes achieved)
SELECTING APPROPRIATE TECHNICAL STRATEGY
System engineering management must determine the most appropriate technical strategy.
- Waterfall
- Incremental
- Agile
ABOUT WATERFALL APPROACH
1-Popular approach
2-logical to expose the systems engineering process
3-building blocks are the same for other approaches
WHEN USE WATERFALL
1-All the system is understood via requirements engineering
2-All the systems elements are identified and understood
3-all the elements need designing are designed, integrated and tested
4-all of the elements are integrated to form the system and it is tested.
5-whole system goes through production
WATERFALL CAN WORK WHEN
1-we have enough time and money to do the whole systems at once
2-we understand our requirements at the system level well enough to base the whole effort on those requirements
3-Requirements are stable
4-technology and expertise is available and stable to salve all at once
TO BE SUCCESSFUL ALL THINGS NEED TO BE IN PLACE. If not use other approach.
INCREMENTAL APPROACH
If we don’t have all the money or all the time…
We can design the whole system so the design accounts for everything we want but that we would implement
the design in a series of interconnected stages or
phases.
Because we had taken the subsequent phases into account right at the start, phase 2 would
be able to build on phase 1, phase 3 would be able to build on phase 2 and so on. In systems engineering, we would call this an incremental approach.
EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH
What if we didn’t really understand all of our
requirements in a lot of detail. We were certain of some requirements but not others. We might build the system based on the requirements we understood and build plenty of spare capacity into the design so as to address our future needs. As we develop our requirements for additional capability.
When we have enough time and money and we
understand our requirements a little better, we can embark on an evolution of the original system. This
might be in the form of an extension or a
reconfiguration. Naturally, in this case, we will be constrained by whatever form the system currently takes. Because we didn’t have a thorough picture in
mind when we started (like we did with the
incremental approach or the waterfall approach) we may need to evolve in a sub-optimal manner.
APPROACH SUMMARY
1-Strategy is important to achieve success
2-Waterfall or Incremental or Evolutionary
3-What worked last time may not work next time.
4-SYSTEMS ENGINEERING MUST BE TAILORED to suit different situations.
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT NEED TO PLAN
1-what strategy we use
2-who is doing what
3-when are the reviews happening
4-what design, development and production resources are required
5-Big risks we are facing
6-Our approach
7-SEMP-Systems Engineering Management Plan
8-SEMP is an artifact, most important is the effort
9-Keep SEMP updated!
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING INVOLVE MANY OTHER DISCIPLINES
-Due complexity, usually we will involve otther disciplines like Project Management
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AS A LIFECYCLE DISCIPLINE
Not only deliver the system, think in the whole lifecycle including maintenance, support, facilities, training, etc.
