6.2.3 Understanding the Value of Systems Engineering

Abstract

The practices of systems engineering are believed to have high value in the development of complex systems. Heuristic wisdom is that an increase in the quantity and quality of systems engineering (SE) can reduce project schedule while increasing product quality. This paper explores recent theoretical and statistical information concerning this heuristic value of SE. It explores the underlying theoretical relationships among project cost and schedule, technical value, technical size, technical complexity, and technical quality, summarizing prior work by the author. It then identifies and summarizes six prior statistical studies with conclusions that relate to the value of SE. Finally, the paper provides final results of a statistical study by the INCOSE Systems Engineering Center of Excellence (SECOE) that presents evident correlations supporting the heuristics. The results indicate that optimal SE effort is approximately 15–20% of the total project effort.

7.1.1 Reduction of Late Design Changes Through Early Phase Need Analysis

“…As a basis for his research, he references research at IBM and NASA. The research conducted at NASA showed that with an increased front-end effort in a project, fewer cost overruns were incurred [8] [9], and the research conducted by IBM shows an increase in productivity improvement, cost savings and quality of design with an increased use of SE [8]. We show Honours findings in Figure 1.…”

“… Identify needs  Translate needs into requirements  Generate, evaluate and select system concept  Develop a functional architecture  Detailed design Eric Honour [9] has done extensive research on the value of SE. His research on the value of SE has resulted in metrics allowing systems engineers to benchmark the processes in the organization, and the amount of SE done in a project to assess if it is the quality of SE, or the amount of SE that limits the value of SE in the specific project.…”

“…In addition, Barrese [8] uses the research from NASA and IBM to justify the effect of the SEBoK fundamental SE processes. Honour [9] shows a correlation between Systems Engineering Effort (SEE) and a projects cost and schedule performance. Honour introduces the following metric to measure SE effort:…”

2.1.1 Model‐Based operational analysis for complex systems ‐ A case study for electric vehicles

“…As defined in [INCOSE, 2010] Additionally, given the ecologic and economic purpose of EVs, we refer to some basic principles explained in [Sage, 1997 and] showing the key role of SE and management to achieving industrial ecology and sustainable development. For further details, the reader can refer to [INCOSE, 2010;Sage, 2000Sage, , 2005Sage, and 2009Meinadier, 1998;Blanchard, 1998;Buede, 2009;Honour, 2004].…”

2.1.1 Defining a System of Systems Engineering and Integration Approach to Address the Navy's Information Technology Technical Authority

“…Implementation and sustainment of SoSE&I across the Navy's entire Information Domain will be costly. Studies suggest that optimally, 15-20% of a system's life-cycle budget should be spent on systems engineering activities (Honour 2004). However, architectures, CONOPS, analysis, and requirements documents do not produce or field systems.…”