Developing and sustaining complex systems requires collaboration of multidisciplinary teams, coordination of processes, methods and tools, allocation of resources, and utilization of adequate facilities within enterprises. Engineering and management of a system comprises three intertwined domains: the product, the project and the enterprise. Despite the obvious links between them, each domain is distinct and uses its own ontology and toolset. This conceptual separation hinders effective handling of the project and product lifecycle activities within the enterprise. The unified Product-Project Lifecycle Management (PPLM) collaborative research project aims to establish, implement, and evaluate a methodology for managing and engineering complex enterprise-wide systems. The resulting software environment will serve as a test bed for proof-of-concept of the PPLM vision and approach. The comprehensive PPLM methodology with its software implementation is expected to enhance enterprise-level systems engineering and management by unifying the product and the project within which it is developed. The paper presents and illustrates the PPLM vision and framework. IntroductionSystems engineering and management comprises three intertwined domains: the product, the project, and the enterprise. To demonstrate the relations between these three subsystems, consider testing. Testing activities focus initially on verifying the performance of software and hardware components. They continue with testing large subassemblies and end with the entire operational system and its supporting environment-the "whole system" concept. What needs to be developed, tested, and delivered is determined by the product requirements, its architecture, and design. When each component should and can be developed and tested is stated in the project plan, which is dynamically re-evaluated, and re-scheduled, depending on parameters such as resource availability, risks, and technological breakthroughs. Whether carrying out the mission is feasible, and at what cost and risk, is determined by the responsible enterprise, its size, structure, commitments, and other factors. The question is how to successfully manage one or more products, each developed via a dedicated project within an enterprise with limited resources.Successful delivery of a large-scale system is predicated upon quality management of the system engineering process throughout the project and product lifecycles. Close collaboration is required between the program management, which focuses on the project, and the system engineering group, which focuses on the product.Systems engineering management is concerned with issues such as schedules, supplier coordination through contracts, employee motivation, incentives, and teamwork. At the same time, it must handle such subjects as product requirements, alternative product architectures, product functionality, product architecture selection, detailed product design, verification and validation. As Figure 1 shows, the "program management" overlaps in a n...
Developing and sustaining complex systems requires collaboration of multidisciplinary teams, coordination of processes, methods and tools, allocation of resources and utilization of adequate facilities within enterprises. The system engineering management comprises three intertwined domains: the product, the project and the enterprise. Despite the obvious links between them, each is carried out using its distinct ontology and toolset. This conceptual separation hinders effective handling of the project and product lifecycle activities within the enterprise. Testing activities of complex products are focused on verifying the performance of increasingly large modules, from software and hardware components, through subassemblies to the entire operational system. What needs to be developed, tested, and delivered is determined by the product requirements, its functions, architecture, components, and their interactions. When each component should and can be developed and tested is determined by the project plan, which is dynamically re-estimated, re-evaluated, and re-planned depending on different parameters such as the project actual status compared with the plan, recourses availability, risks, technological breakthroughs or other impacting issues. Whether carrying out the development mission is feasible is determined by the responsible enterprise, its size, structure, management criteria, other projects running in parallel, commitments, and many other aspects. This paper introduces a unified project-product lifecycle management framework that attempts to address the problems cause by separating the product from the project that is supposed to deliver it within the executing enterprise.
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