System design and project planning: Model and rules to manage their interactions

Abstract

This article proposes a model and rules dealing with the management of the interaction between system design processes and project planning ones. An industrial benchmark analysis has reinforced our belief that the interaction between the two processes has to be supported by models, processes and relevant tools. Firstly, after presenting the results of the analysis, the different entities are defined and the one-to-one relationship or bijection between the structure of the system and the structure of the project is made. Then, a model, taking into account design activities and planning activities as well as management of interactions, is proposed in compliance with existing project and design standards. A process of interaction is presented to carry out design and project management. Two interaction modes have been proposed. On the one hand, the structural interaction establishes links between entities of the two domains. On the other hand, the behavioral interaction (subject of this paper) is based on the definition of states for each entity following feasibility and verification criteria, and can thus manage the changes between states. Some rules are defined (precedence and synchronous rules) to forbid certain changes when they are inconsistent and to synchronize them.

Configuration knowledge modeling: How to extend configuration from assemble/make to order towards engineer to order for the bidding process

“…Furthermore, when such non-standard requirements are considered, we assume that it is the responsibility of the bidding company expert team to consider their feasibility, i.e. their ability to be developed technically and economically [34]. It is important to note that (1) it is not always easy to identify which potentially non-standard requirements may be required by customers or to know how to evaluate their feasibility a priori and (2) the evaluation of this feasibility relies on the skills and expertise of the expert team and its own subjective point of view.…”

Towards an Integration of Systems Engineering and Project Management Processes for a Decision Aiding Purpose

“…In these works, a structural interaction making bijective connections between project and system structures has been defined in (Abeille et al (2010) and Coudert et al (2011)). Then, a behavioral interaction model has been proposed in (Vareilles et al (2015)) enabling a synchronization of system design and project planning by defining specific integrated models and rules. Moreover, the SEBOK Guide (SEBOK (2014)) highlights the necessity to have an overlap between systems engineering and project management by considering all the common concerns between both disciplines.…”

A risk-based approach applied to system engineering projects: A new learning based multi-criteria decision support tool based on an Ant Colony Algorithm

“…In Abeille et al (2010) and Coudert et al (2011), structural interactions to establish bijective connections between system and project structures have been defined. Another model of behavioral interaction has been proposed in Vareilles et al (2015) allowing synchronization of system design and project planning by defining the rules that are related to a specific integrated model. The risk management process (PMBOK Guide, 2013) is not carried out during the early phases of the project elaboration.…”

“…In the System Development sub-process, the system engineer analyses the requirements in order to define the logical and physical structures of the new system to deliver in conjunction with the project manager who defines their associated project activities (Vareilles et al, 2015).…”

“…For this purpose, an integrated process that takes into account the interactions between the PM and the SE sub-processes is a good way to make collaborative decisions and meet the customer needs by satisfying the different requirements and project objectives especially in terms of cost, duration and risk. Some previous works done in our research team have defined coupling points between a system design process and a project planning process (Coudert et al, 2011;Vareilles et al, 2015). These works have shown that both processes need to be controlled and executed in parallel with strong synchronization mechanisms which allow meeting the requirements of the customers.…”