4.5.1 A Systems Engineering Capability in the Global Market Place

Abstract

Organisations that produce a physical product have no difficulty in promoting their capability; Systems Engineering organisations produce a conceptual product: their deliverables consist mainly of information. A Systems Engineering capability is therefore an abstract entity, and sometimes hard to visualise. For a Systems Engineering organisation to remain competitive in the Global Market Place, it must have a method of assessing, promoting and improving its capability. Although NCOSE is moving towards a common understanding, to date there are no external benchmarking systems that can be used to provide an absolute indication of Systems Engineering effectiveness. A method for assessing the Software Engineering Capability of contractors has been developed by the Software Engineering Institute of the Carnegie Mellon University, but the method is not directly applicable to Systems Engineering. The IEEE P1220 Standard for the Application and Management of the Systems Engineering Process imposes (4.14, Re-Engineering, Self Assessment, Lessons Learnt) a requirement to implement an improvement program. There is also a requirement for benchmarking the Systems Engineering Process (6.8.7e). This paper describes an internal assessment methodology that an organisation can adopt to improve its effectiveness, and meet/exceed these IEEE P1220 requirements.