What are the best ways to measure success in systems engineering projects?

1 Define success criteria

Before you can measure success, you need to define what success means for your project. This involves identifying and prioritizing the goals, objectives, and requirements of your system and its stakeholders. You also need to establish the scope, schedule, budget, and quality standards of your project. These are the baseline parameters that you will use to compare and contrast the actual outcomes of your system. You can use various tools and techniques, such as stakeholder analysis, requirements engineering, trade-off analysis, and systems engineering plan, to define and document your success criteria.

2 Apply systems engineering metrics

Once you have defined your success criteria, you need to apply systems engineering metrics to measure and track the progress and performance of your system and your project. Systems engineering metrics are quantitative indicators that can help you evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction of your system and its stakeholders. They can also help you identify and resolve issues, risks, and opportunities for improvement. Some examples of systems engineering metrics are technical performance measures, system readiness levels, system maturity levels, requirements traceability matrix, earned value management, and customer satisfaction surveys.

3 Conduct systems engineering reviews

Another way to measure success in systems engineering projects is to conduct systems engineering reviews at various stages of the system life cycle. Systems engineering reviews are formal or informal assessments that can help you verify and validate the compliance, completeness, and correctness of your system and its components. They can also help you communicate and collaborate with your stakeholders, as well as capture and incorporate feedback and lessons learned. Some examples of systems engineering reviews are system requirements review, preliminary design review, critical design review, test readiness review, and operational readiness review.

4 Perform systems engineering audits

In addition to systems engineering reviews, you can also perform systems engineering audits to measure success in systems engineering projects. Systems engineering audits are independent and objective evaluations that can help you ensure the quality, reliability, and safety of your system and its processes. They can also help you check the adherence to standards, regulations, and best practices, as well as identify and mitigate any non-conformities or deficiencies. Some examples of systems engineering audits are configuration audits, process audits, product audits, and system audits.

5 Use systems engineering tools

Finally, you can use systems engineering tools to measure success in systems engineering projects. Systems engineering tools are software applications that can help you support and automate various aspects of systems engineering, such as modeling, simulation, analysis, testing, documentation, and management. They can also help you integrate and coordinate different disciplines, domains, and data sources, as well as enhance the visibility and traceability of your system and its elements. Some examples of systems engineering tools are SysML, MATLAB, DOORS, PTC Windchill, and IBM Rational Rhapsody.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?