The Product and Process Focus within NASA Systems Engineering

Abstract

This paper compares two fundamentally different systems engineering approaches found in two separate NASA systems engineering manuals. These manuals and their corresponding approaches exist as a collection of information that have been gathered, analyzed, and structured in order to help guide systems engineers and systems engineering in the development and management of complex launch systems. As a result, both manuals demonstrate in-depth insight into systems engineering as a discipline and its evolution through decades of practice, research, and collective thought. However, in order to fully understand the insight these manuals can provide, this paper presents a clear description, discussion, and distinction between the 1995 NASA manual with its focus on the product aspects within systems engineering and the 2007 NASA manual with its focus on the process aspects. By allowing this separation, this paper abstracts the characteristics, merits, and issues surrounding these two systems engineering approaches and leverages them to critically examine NASA's formal systems engineering culture.