Systems engineering is a phrase seen more and more in government acquisitions. There are dedicated courses on how to apply systems engineering to various projects and how to effectively integrate it into the acquisitions process. In fact, a common contract data requirements list (CDRL) item in USG contracts is the systems engineering plan (SEP) and you can now easily find DoD outlines for this through a quick internet search.  

What is Systems Engineering? 

Systems engineering is a unique interdisciplinary field that focuses on designing, INTEGRATING, and managing complex systems throughout their life cycles. It involves a holistic approach to ensure that all aspects of a system are considered and integrated into a coherent whole. 

The importance of applying systems engineering to the development, design, and implementation of your unique product include:

• Ensures all components of a project are considered, including technical, financial, and operational aspects resulting in a more efficient and effective system
• Integrates all areas of the system in development to ensure the parts work effectively together
• Designs long term needs into the product early on by applying systems engineering to an entire project lifecycle, to include deployment and maintenance considerations
• Helps to identify, assess, and mitigate risk early on by evaluating how all parts are working towards the whole

How can you apply Systems Engineering to meet USG needs? 

There are numerous ways that systems engineering can be used by you to effectively meet USG needs. The first step to integrating systems engineering with your USG intended product is developing your work breakdown structure (WBS) in alignment with cost and USG requirements. Here are some additional ways to apply systems engineering to your product development: 

• WBS and Requirements Management

• Requirement analysis: To develop a WBS, systems engineering requires you to analyze and decompose government requirements into specific, actional tasks with definitive metrics
• Traceability: By completing requirements analysis, it ensures traceability of requirements throughout the lifecycle of a project ESPECIALLY in the initial design phase. By tracing all USG requirements to your proposed solution and ensuring those requirements are addressed and satisfied, it helps to identify any integration issues up front.
• Change Management: Additionally, traceability provides a mechanism for managing changes to requirements and ensuring modifications are controlled and documented. 

• Integrated Design and Development

Systems engineering promotes concurrent engineering, where design, development, and testing activities are performed in parallel. This reduces time to market and ensures that issues are identified and addressed early.

• Improved Risk Management

As the result of constantly evaluating how all the parts of a system are being developed and designed to work together, systems engineering can help to identify potential risks early in a project and work to create mitigation strategies. This includes contingency planning early on in a project to ensure that any changes or risks can proactively be addressed. 

• Enhanced Communication and Collaboration

Integrated product teams (IPT) are in common use these days. By creating a cross-functional team that meets on a regular basis, you can identify potential shortcomings or issues early in the development and design process. This allows better risk management by creating a more collaborative approach to problem-solving as there are representatives from each respective design area on the IPT. 

Additionally, systems engineering promotes active involvement of all stakeholders, including government agencies, contractors, and end-users, ensuring their needs and expectations are met. You will sometimes see this executed as a technical interchange meeting, or TIM, with the USG. TIM’s are typically a defense contractor’s IPT and the USG technical and PM team in one meeting to discuss project status and the needs or concerns of either party. 

• Additional Applications of Systems Engineering

• Compliance with Standards: Systems engineering helps with adherence to regulations and compliance standards due to the requirement for cursory understanding of the specifications required for verification and validation of a system. 
• Testing and Evaluation: Through comprehensive testing and evaluation throughout the lifecycle of a project, test and evaluation can verify the system and its components meet performance criteria and operate reliably under expected conditions. 

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This very top-level view of systems engineering and its applications to USG and defense contractor interaction is just a highlight of its value. Many companies already incorporate systems engineering even if it’s not an official process title or role. The semantics of what you call systems engineering is less important than the application of its principles. As a systems engineer myself, I’m always happy when I see companies and the USG applying systems engineering principles in the right way to advance technology. 

By understanding and incorporating systems engineering as early as possible in your design and development processes (to include applying it to your response to a solicitation), you are setting yourself up for success by integrating practices that make you more efficient, effective, and resilient to change and challenges. 

Stay tuned for more posts on specific aspects of systems engineering and how you can easily incorporate them into your program management practices. 

Keep Moving Forward,