Managing Systems Engineering Projects with Uncertain Requirements

Abstract

Prior to being alerted that a requirement has changed, project management typically recommends that an engineer treat that requirement as fixed. But proper risk management emphasizes that all uncertainties should be explicitly recognized prior to making any decisions. Hence the engineer should explicitly recognize the possibility that their requirements may change. As a result, systems engineering indexes each requirement by its stability, which reflects its probability of changing. Building on this insight, this paper presents a new technique for considering the uncertainty associated with any requirement in design decisions.