No abstract

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. DoD programs need effective systems engineering (SE) to succeed. DoD program managers need early warning of any risks to achieving effective SE. This SERC project has synthesized analyses of DoD SE effectiveness risk sources into a lean framework and toolset for early identification of SE-related program risks. Three important points need to be made about these risks. • They are generally not indicators of "bad SE." Although SE can be done badly, more often the risks are consequences of inadequate program funding (SE is the first victim of an underbudgeted program), of misguided contract provisions (when a program manager is faced with the choice between allocating limited SE resources toward producing contract-incentivized functional specifications vs. addressing key performance parameter risks, the path of least resistance is to obey the contract), or of management temptations to show early progress on the easy parts while deferring the hard parts till later. • Analyses have shown that unaddressed risk generally leads to serious budget and schedule overruns. • Risks are not necessarily bad. If an early capability is needed, and the risky solution has been shown to be superior to the alternatives, accepting and focusing on mitigating the risk is generally better than waiting for a better alternative to show up. Unlike traditional schedule-based and event-based reviews, the SERC SE EM technology enables sponsors and performers to agree on the nature and use of more effective evidence-based reviews. These enable early detection of missing SE capabilities or personnel competencies with respect to a framework of Goals, Critical Success Factors (CSFs), and Questions determined by the EM task from the leading DoD early-SE CSF analyses. The EM tools enable risk-based prioritization of corrective actions, as shortfalls in evidence for each question are early uncertainties, which when combined with the relative system impact of a negative answer to the question, translates into the degree of risk that needs to be managed to avoid system overruns and incomplete deliveries.

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. This material has been approved for public release and unlimited distribution except as restricted below.Internal use by SERC, SERC Collaborators and originators :* Permission to reproduce this material and to prepare derivative works from this material for internal use is granted, provided the copyright and "No Warranty" statements are included with all reproductions and derivative works. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Motivation and ContextOne of the key elements of the SERC's research strategy is transforming the practice of systems engineering -"SE Transformation." The Grand Challenge goal for SE Transformation is to transform the DoD community's current systems engineering and management methods, processes, and tools (MPTs) and practices away from sequential, single stovepipe system, hardware-first, outside-in, document-driven, point-solution, acquisition-oriented approaches; and toward concurrent, portfolio and enterprise-oriented, hardware-software-human engineered, balanced outside-in and inside-out, model-driven, set-based, full life cycle approaches.These will enable much more rapid, concurrent, flexible, scalable definition and analysis of the increasingly complex, dynamic, multi-stakeholder, cyber-physical-human DoD systems of the future. Four elements of the research strategy for SE Transformation are the following:1. Make Smart Trades Quickly: Develop MPTs to enable stakeholders to be able to understand and visualize the tradespace and make smart decisions quickly that take into account how the many characteristics and functions of systems impact each other 2. Rapidly Conceive of Systems: Develop MPTs that allow multi-discipline stakeholders to quickly develop alternative system concepts and evaluate them for their effectiveness and practicality 3. Balance Agility, Assurance, and Affordability: Develop SE MPTs that work with high assurance in the face of high uncertainty and rapid change in mission, requirements, technology, and other factors to allow systems to be rapidly and cost-effectively acquired and responsive to both anticipated and unanticipated changes in the field 4. Align with Engineered Resilient Systems: Align research to leverage ERS and contribute to it; e.g., ERS efforts to define new a...

No abstract