Systems Engineering for Projects

Achieving Positive Outcomes in a Complex World

Lory Mitchell Wingate

• Publisher: Auerbach Publications
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429876035
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

Systems engineering has been applied to some of the most important projects of our time, including those that have helped humanity explore the world and the universe, expand our technical abilities, and enhance the quality of human life.

Without formal training in systems engineering, the discipline is often difficult to understand and apply, and its use within projects is often confusing. Systems Engineering for Projects: Achieving Positive Outcomes in a Complex World provides an approach that utilizes a combination of the most effective processes from both project management and systems engineering disciplines in a simplified and straightforward manner.

The processes described in the book are lightweight, flexible, and tailorable. They provide the shortest path to success in projects across the entire project life cycle, from research to operations, and from simple to the most complex. The book also addresses how this methodology can be used in a continually adapting and changing world, as projects span disciplines and become even more interconnected across all areas of human existence.

Each chapter includes diagrams, templates, summary lists, a case study, and a thought-provoking question and answer section that assists readers in immediate application of the material to their own projects. The book is a project manager's resource for understanding how to directly apply essential processes to projects in a way that increases the probability of achieving success. It is a comprehensive, go-to manual on the application of systems engineering processes to projects of all types and complexity.

Chapter 1

The Discipline of Systems Engineering

The elements of systems engineering that will be explored in this chapter include:

• origination

• evolution

• impact on the business

• organization

Systems engineering is a discipline that provides structured processes necessary to manage projects that require performance from many disciplines in order to achieve their objectives. In Sections 1.1 and 1.2, this chapter first explores the origination and evolution of the discipline of systems engineering, the resulting terminology changes, and standards development. There is a long history associated with the development of the processes, with a convergence of techniques that have led to a formal designation of an integrated discipline. This evolution is continuing. The future of systems engineering will be fully discussed in Chapter 8.

In Section 1.3, the application of the systems engineering discipline within an organization is discussed. Section 1.4 describes an overview of systems engineering, including the system and system-of-systems approaches. A case study demonstrating the application of systems engineering processes is provided in Section 1.5. The purpose of each case study in this book is to demonstrate that systems engineering processes and practices are a natural controlling mechanism associated with projects across all fields and disciplines. And awareness of the natural alignment of activities to the established systems engineering processes, when appropriately applied, can increase the probability of achieving a successful outcome. Systems engineering processes can be used in most every scenario to develop and implement a roadmap that will lead to successful outcomes and that meets the desires of the key stakeholders. The stakeholder group includes the customers as well as any other key individuals who have a vested interest in the project. Although specific systems engineering activities were not consciously planned into the project, the case study in this chapter demonstrates the natural inclination to categorize and organize in a methodical way in order to increase the potential of achieving success. The focus of these cases provides an opportunity to review an activity that would not typically be chosen to represent systems engineering such as is found in other texts; however, these cases well represent standard systems engineering processes in use. This provides the reader with a greater understanding of the applicability of these processes to their own situations, which may fall outside of the typical organizational examples.

Finally, a summary checklist of the key concepts is available in Section 1.6 to assist learning. Apply Now exercises, which allow for the immediate application of the information in this chapter, are included in Section 1.7.

Chapter Roadmap

Chapter 1 focuses on systems engineering as a discipline. It specifically:

• explains how systems engineering emerged as a discipline

• describes the evolution of the systems engineering discipline

• explores the impact of systems engineering within businesses

• uses a case study to demonstrate the application of systems engineering processes

• provides a summary checklist of the key concepts to assist learning

• provides Apply Now exercises to assist in the application of the concepts from the chapter to a real situation

1.1 Origination of Systems Engineering

This section explains how the systems engineering discipline originated and how it overlaps systems thinking.

• Systems engineering originally emerged from a need to achieve better project outcomes.

• It began as a way to view the interactions of various engineering disciplines as they were related to a single project or product.

• It takes into formal consideration the stakeholders’ vision.

• Systems engineering forms a holistic and synergistic perspective of the product.

• It has led to formal education programs and implementation standards.

One of the ways that ideas have been brought to life in the world has been through invention. Interested persons throughout time have attempted to create new products through trial and error. They had a great idea and put it to the test. Ideas that were successful in a prototype form were then produced in larger quantities. Early in the technology age, these inventions were seen as remarkable and interesting creations, mostly unavailable to the average person. Communications about the new object and what it could do were limited to the media reach and the budget of the individual inventor. In some cases, even if the new product was of interest outside a small and local community, the costs to produce the item would limit its production and distribution to a small population. As the technological age advanced, engineering took over the majority of duties from the individual inventor. Inventors were expected to focus on early research and development (R&D), whereas engineers took the design and created production versions that could be mass produced at a lower cost.

For the greater part of the technological age, inventions typically were of the mechanical and analog electronic forms. The move to digital technology was revolutionary. Where analog technology simply converted a signal in its original form, digital technology sampled the signal, converted it to numerals, and then stored it in a digital device. During the output phase, the numbers are transformed into voltage waves that approximate the original signal. Conversely, the analog signal is read as recorded, amplified and projected directly through a speaker or other output device. With the conversion to digital technology, the signal was not subjected to degradation and could be compressed. This allowed more information to be stored on smaller media, which opened up a new paradigm and radically changed the nature of invention and production. Opportunities for new products that could be designed, mass produced, and then made available to the general population at reasonable cost meant that the focus would change from the initial state of invention to production efficiencies.

Although the processes that ultimately make up systems engineering were practiced in various forms throughout history, the first documented use of an approach that took the system into consideration was in Bell Telephone Laboratories. Their use of “systems engineering” as a term to reflect their methods was documented in the 1940s.¹ Bell Laboratories was involved in military action optimization studies during World War II. Scientists and engineers there were using operations research methods, specifically optimization modeling using calculus, linear algebra, and other techniques, as well as stochastic processes such as queuing theory and probability theory. It was not until 1962, however, that “Arthur Hall published his first book on systems engineering: A Methodology for Systems Engineering. Hall was an executive at Bell Laboratories and was one of the people who were responsible for the implementation of systems engineering at the company.”² During the same era, the RAND Corporation, ideated by a newly formed United States Air Force, developed a process for systems analysis that would become an important part of the systems engineering discipline. Systems analysis is an approach that reviews a problem in logical steps, and describes the system thoroughly and explicitly. Using computing resources to perform systems analysis and optimization modeling provides a solid scientifically based approach for performing systems engineering.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, the digital revolution spawned unexpected and inconceivable growth in industry. The act of inventing proliferated through every discipline, and those who utilized technology, particularly digital technology, found tremendous opportunities. Evolution over time from simple systems engineered primarily from mechanical hardware and electronics to complicated systems integrating multiple engineering disciplines became the norm. Complicated, but not complex, designs were developed and used to manufacture the majority of products. The speed at which products were brought to market increased exponentially. The ability to think of an idea; conceptualize a design; develop a prototype; test, verify, and validate the performance of the capability; and produce the design to specifications all formed the basis for movement to the design-build-test method of engineering that was popular during this era.

The design-build-test method of engineering provided the structure for the engineer to research the area of interest, develop a solution based on known requirements, create the prototype, and test it. However, this method did not, as part of its standard process, provide for consideration of the contribution of other disciplines (such as software development that was inserted into hardware), or provide a way for the stakeholders to articulate their needs and validate that the product met their needs. It was not until project development started crossing disciplines on a regular basis that the limitations of a traditional engineering process started to emerge. A systems engineering concept was beginning to be developed. There was a “growing sense of a need for, and possibility of, a scientific approach to problems of organization and complexity in a ‘science of systems’ per se.”³

The United States Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) were early adopters of this integrated approach to development, driven out of necessity to complete large, complicated products to support war fighting and space exploration. Indeed, most people think of the NASA Apollo Program when they think of “classic systems engineering.” “The task … was daunting and complicated, it involved breaking the underlying goal into multiple sections or manageable parts that participating agencies and companies could work with and comprehend. These various parts then had to be reintegrated into one whole solution, and as a result, careful attention and management involving extensive testing and verification was necessary. The complex nature of these tasks made systems engineering a suitable tool for designing such systems. It was the principles of systems engineering that resulted in the rigorous system solution, which contributed to Apollo’s overall success.”⁴

The first attempts to teach systems engineering concepts occurred in the 1950s by Bell Laboratories, but with limited success. By the 1980s, strong demands to meet the needs of the industries interested in developing and implementing an integrated systems approach drove universities in the United States to offer the requisite courses that ultimately produced a pipeline of specialist engineers. Graduates of these courses were following a rigorous approach designed to facilitate major programs. Military standards were also being implemented within government-funded programs, helping to form the foundation for the systems engineering concepts that are in place today.

Once the digital age evolved into what is known as the information age during the 1980s, and projects became, more often than not, interdisciplinary and complex, systems engineering truly became a necessity for successful project execution. These projects generally involved the heavy integration of software. Many of the engineering projects that covered the mechanical, civil, and safety, disciplines or software-enabled systems required integration over networks. Businesses had to rethink how they operated. Stakeholders had more choices and had the ability to shift their loyalties and purchase power from one company to another and from one product to another. They demanded more participation in the development as well. Systems engineering became sought after by these organizations as a way to help meet their stakeholder’s needs and improve their organizational performance.⁵

Projects that required careful integration of project elements from multiple disciplines needed a better way to ensure that they achieved the expected results within the cost, schedule, and scope anticipated by the stakeholders. Projects were becoming more and more complicated and spanned all areas of business, such as platform-related products (e.g., aircraft), infrastructure products (e.g., bridges and buildings), information-dense products associated with command and control activities, and enterprise systems distributed across organizations and, in some cases, other companies and countries. All of these independent pieces of the system needed to be brought together at the right time, in the right place, to maximize the effectiveness of the system as a whole. The approach needed to be holistic and synthesizing. And it needed to focus on the desires of the stakeholder. With the application of systems engineering comes the stakeholder focus throughout the project.⁶ The more complicated the project became, the more it was liable to be diverted (unintentionally) from the stakeholders’ desired vision.

The need to understand and correctly identify what stakeholders wanted, to convert that vision into a straightforward functional architecture, and then to be able to decompose that functional architecture into a physical architecture that could be modeled and tested in order to ensure the best design to meet the stakeholders’ expectations were met was an imperative. This top-down approach was called “systems” engineering for organizational-level implementation, or “system” engineering for activities associated with a single project. This approach envisioned incorporating work from across all contributing disciplines instead of through individual downstream disciplines, such as mechanical or electrical engineering, with a focus on ensuring that stakeholders received what they needed from a project. It was seen as a holistic approach that fundamentally would provide a whole system in its complete form to the stakeholders.

Systems engineering added tremendous value to the project management methods. It was holistic in nature and spanned the life cycle of the system. It focused on...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations and Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Chapter 1 The Discipline of Systems Engineering
• Chapter 2 Systems Engineering as a Project Enabler
• Chapter 3 Application of Complementary Processes
• Chapter 4 Application of Unique Processes
• Chapter 5 Success Measurements
• Chapter 6 Tailoring
• Chapter 7 Methodology Synthesis and Application
• Chapter 8 The Future of Systems Engineering
• Acronyms
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index