Systems Engineering

Systems Engineer is the Best Job in America in 2009.


The International Council on Systems Engineering, INCOSE describes Systems Engineering as an engineering discipline whose responsibility is creating and executing an interdisciplinary process to ensure that the customer and stakeholder's needs are satisfied in a high quality, trustworthy, cost efficient and schedule compliant manner throughout a system's entire life cycle. 


Systems Engineers understand all the needs of the customer(s) accurately and describe them to development team(s). Then they test the implementation of the system before acceptance.


INCOSE describes following seven tasks for SE process: State the problem, Investigate alternatives, Model the system, Integrate, Launch the system, Assess performance, and Re-evaluate. These functions can be summarized with the acronym SIMILAR: State, Investigate, Model, Integrate, Launch, Assess and Re-evaluate. 


IEEE has 1220-2005 - IEEE Standard for Application and Management of the Systems Engineering Process. The interdisciplinary tasks, which are required throughout a system's life cycle to transform customer needs, requirements, and constraints into a system solution, are defined in this standard. The tasks of SE process are:

• Requirements analysis
• Requirements validation
• Functional analysis
• Functional verification
• Synthesis
• Design verification
• Systems analysis
• Control

This standard is intended to guide the development of systems for commercial, government, military, and space applications.

Another reference for systems engineering is NASA Systems Engineering Handbook. 

SysML is generally used as modeling language for systems engineering applications.


I've been performing SE tasks over ten years for both military and civil projects. I've seen that requirements validation and managing interfaces are the most important tasks affecting projects to be completed on time. If your requirement analysis has any faults and when you recognize this while doing acceptance tests, this is the worst nightmare. So you have to validate your requirements at the beginning of the project. Besides, you have to design and control interfaces very carefully along the project. Otherwise systems integration will last forever. 

Following books will be useful for you:

Reading List of C++ Programming

Project Human Resource Management

Project Human Resource Management includes the processes that organize and manage the project team. The project team is comprised of the people who have assigned roles and responsibilities for completing the project. While it is common to speak of roles and responsibilities being assigned, team members should be involved in much of the project's planning and decision-making. Early involvement of team members adds expertise during the planning process and strengthens commitment to the project. The type and number of project team members can often change as the project progresses. Project team members can be referred to as the project's staff.

The Project Human Resource Management processes include the following:
Human Resource Planning - Identifying and documenting project roles,
responsibilities, and reporting relationships, as well as creating the staffing
management plan.
Acquire Project Team - Obtaining the human resources needed to complete
the project.
Develop Project Team - Improving the competencies and interaction of team
members to enhance project performance.
Manage Project Team - Tracking team member performance, providing
feedback, resolving issues, and coordinating changes to enhance project
performance.


What will you do if your project teams are made up of qualified senior people from different disciplines? Moreover the project has many unsolved problems of domain.

Systems Integration and Test

In my company we have to integrate software, hardware, firmware, electrical, electronics, mechanical and human machine interface sub-systems to develop a simulator.
We do Star Integration (or also known as Spaghetti Integration is a process of integration of the systems where each system is interconnected to each of the remaining subsystems) and follow Product Integration Process Area of Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI®).
Related Special Goals (SG) and Special Practices (SP) are as follows:
SG 1 Prepare for Product Integration
SP 1.1 Determine Integration Sequence
SP 1.2 Establish the Product Integration Environment
SP 1.3 Establish Product Integration Procedures and Criteria
SG 2 Ensure Interface Compatibility
SP 2.1 Review Interface Descriptions for Completeness
SP 2.2 Manage Interfaces
SG 3 Assemble Product Components and Deliver the Product
SP 3.1 Confirm Readiness of Product Components for Integration
SP 3.2 Assemble Product Components
SP 3.3 Evaluate Assembled Product Components
SP 3.4 Package and Deliver the Product or Product Component

You can also get information about the sub-practices at Software Engineering Institute.
According to my experience the most important sub-practice is
"Review interface data for completeness and ensure complete
coverage of all interfaces." When you integrate a system you have to define interfaces between sub-systems in complete coverage. To do this you'll need to begin searching interfaces at requirement analysis phase and document all requirements of interfaces in System Subsystem Requirements (SSR) Document. Later, in the Systems Design phase you'll identify all interfaces of your system.
So in the Systems Integration phase, you can define tests to verify the interfaces.
It's also important to document a "Systems Integration Plan".

Here's a template for "Systems Integration Plan":
1 SCOPE
1.1 Document Overview
1.2 Identification
1.3 System Overview
1.4 Abbreviations
2 REFERENCED DOCUMENTS
2.1 Company Reference Documents
2.2 Standards
3 GENERAL CONSTRAINTS
4 INTEGRATION STRATEGY
4.1 Simulator Components
4.1.1 Software
4.1.2 Human Machine Interface (HMI)
4.1.3 Mockup Mechanical
4.1.4 Electrics
4.1.5 Motion Platform
4.1.6 External Environment
4.2 Integration Sequence
4.2.1 Software – HMI
4.2.2 Software – Mockup
4.2.3 Software – Motion Platform
4.2.4 Software - Electrics
4.2.5 Mockup Mechanical – HMI Integration
4.2.6 Mockup – Motion Platform
4.2.7 Mockup – Electrics
4.2.8 HMI - Electrics Integration
5 INTEGRATION TESTS
6 INTEGRATION – TESTS TRACEABILITY MATRIX

There is another important point to those methods. That is effective communication of the teams. My experience is as follows:
As a systems integration specialist I have to deal with people from different disciplines. Integrating sub-systems really means that integrating people of Software, Mechanical, Electronics, and etc. Each discipline has its own point of view for the integration of the system. So a systems integrator has to establish a good communication network between those people.

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)

I first met with CMM in 1997. I had made adoption of CMMI for
Software Quality Management and Software Process Improvement operations, besides Mil-Std 498 and IEEE 12207.

For present, System Integration process in our company, which I'm responsible for, is based on Product Integration Process Area of CMMI for Development v1.2.

CMMI is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes that ultimately improve their performance. CMMI can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization. It helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes.

The benefits you can expect from using CMMI include the following:

* Your organization's activities are explicitly linked to your business objectives.
* Your visibility into the organization's activities is increased to help you ensure that your product or service meets the customer's expectations.
* You learn from new areas of best practice (e.g., measurement, risk).

There are 22 process areas, presented here in alphabetical order by
acronym:
• Causal Analysis and Resolution (CAR)
• Configuration Management (CM)
• Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR)
• Integrated Project Management +IPPD (IPM+IPPD)6
• Measurement and Analysis (MA)
• Organizational Innovation and Deployment (OID)
• Organizational Process Definition +IPPD (OPD+IPPD)6
• Organizational Process Focus (OPF)
• Organizational Process Performance (OPP)
• Organizational Training (OT)
• Product Integration (PI)
• Project Monitoring and Control (PMC)
• Project Planning (PP)
• Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA)
• Quantitative Project Management (QPM)
• Requirements Development (RD)
• Requirements Management (REQM)
• Risk Management (RSKM)
• Supplier Agreement Management (SAM)
• Technical Solution (TS)
• Validation (VAL)
• Verification (VER)

These process areas are implemented following levels:

Level Continuous Representation Capability Levels
Level 0 Incomplete
Level 1 Performed
Level 2 Managed
Level 3 Defined
Level 4 Quantitatively Managed
Level 5 Optimizing

Book References:

CMMI(R): Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement (2nd Edition)

Project Management Success with CMMI(R): Seven CMMI Process Areas

Real Process Improvement Using the CMMI

Mini CMMI for Development: Version 1.2

Competencies for Professional Development

My personal development plan to reach my career plan is based on improving following competencies:

- Direction Setting
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Cooperation
- Result Orientation
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Improving Team Members and Myself
- Adaptation and Managing Diversity
- Customer Orientation

When I improve myself on these competencies I become more successful and increase performance on my professional acts.

So I read articles and books, join to related seminars, trainings about them.

Project Management

I had a course on "Project Management" a few days ago. It was an introduction course on project management methodology of PMI - Project Management Institute.

I've been studying to become a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
The Book of PMI for project management is
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (Pmbok Guide)Fourth Edition [GT THE PROJECT MGMT BODY OF KN]

According to PMI,
Project Management Process Groups are:
* Initiating
* Planning
* Executing
* Monitoring and Controlling
* Closing

And the project management knowledge areas to implement these processes are:
1 Project Integration Management
2 Project Scope Management
3 Project Time Management
4 Project Cost Management
5 Project Quality Management
6 Project Human Resource Management
7 Project Communications Management
8 Project Risk Management
9 Project Procurement Management

I also follow some eJournals and sites like PMWorldToday and TechRepublic.