Developing a business case for Systems Engineering

Understanding the value of Systems Engineering (SE) is necessary to justify a project's investment in SE resources and activities. To identify the value of SE, the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), in collaboration with the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), developed and executed a survey of defense industrial contractors. [1] The survey analyzed the relationships between the SE activities applied to individual projects, and performance of those projects. Results of this survey, published in 2007 and 2008, indicated strong relationships between many SE efforts applied early in the project and the overall success of the project. Today, NDIA, in collaboration with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (IEEE-AESS) and SEI, is engaged in extending that study to build a stronger business case for the application of effective SE to product development projects.