8-Systems Engineering Management

Question 1

MANAGEMENT

Answer 1

Don’t forget that Systems Engineering cover:

• Design
• Development of a solution
• MANAGEMENT all the process to deliver expect outcomes minimizing risks.

Question 2

KEY MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Answer 2

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

Question 3

VERIFYING AND VALIDATING THE SYSTEM

Answer 3

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

Question 4

TOPICS TO BE VALIDATED

Answer 4

A validated systems implies:
1-systems itself
2-people
3-training system
4-support environment
5-integration with external systems

Question 5

PLANNING THE EVALUATION

Answer 5

Key concept:

Plan early to ensure time, money and desired results

Question 6

MANAGING CONFIGURATION

Answer 6

Set and maintain version control of everything we produce.

• documentation
• hardware required
• software
• interfaces

Question 7

FOUR BASIC ELEMENTS TO CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

MANAGING TECHNICAL RISKS

Answer 8

• 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

Question 9

Examples of RISKS

Answer 9

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)

Question 10

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING APPROACH TO MANAGE RISKS

Answer 10

• Conducting progressive reviews

- Rolling evaluation programs and audits

Question 11

HOW MANAGE TECHNICAL RISKS?

Answer 11

1-Avoiding them
2-Reducing them by lowering likelihood and/or impact
3-Transferring to a third party more suited to handle it/them.

Question 12

REDUCING RISKS by design

Answer 12

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

Question 13

RISKS RETURN EVALUATION

Answer 13

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!

Question 14

ADDRESSING RISKS THRU REVIEWS

Answer 14

1-Stakeholders requirements with SYSTEM DESIGN REVIEW
2-Preliminary design with PRELIMINARY DESIGN REVIEW
3-Design with CRITICAL DESIGN REVIEW

Question 15

CONDUCTING DESIGN REVIEWS

Answer 15

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)

Question 16

SELECTING APPROPRIATE TECHNICAL STRATEGY

Answer 16

System engineering management must determine the most appropriate technical strategy.

• Waterfall
• Incremental
• Agile

Question 17

ABOUT WATERFALL APPROACH

Answer 17

1-Popular approach
2-logical to expose the systems engineering process
3-building blocks are the same for other approaches

Question 18

WHEN USE WATERFALL

Answer 18

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

Question 19

WATERFALL CAN WORK WHEN

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

INCREMENTAL APPROACH

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

APPROACH SUMMARY

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT NEED TO PLAN

Answer 23

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!

Question 24

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING INVOLVE MANY OTHER DISCIPLINES

Answer 24

-Due complexity, usually we will involve otther disciplines like Project Management

Question 25

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AS A LIFECYCLE DISCIPLINE

Answer 25

Not only deliver the system, think in the whole lifecycle including maintenance, support, facilities, training, etc.