Leveraging Systems Engineering for Effective Compliance

When it comes to developing capabilities that need to perform, that are reliable and that you can trust, within targeted budgets and time constraints, there is much to be learned from Defense programs.

The document "Best Practices for Using Systems Engineering Standards (ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, IEEE 15288.1, and IEEE 15288.2) on Contracts for Department of Defense Acquisition Programs" gets right to the point:

"The Department of Defense (DoD) and the defense industry have found that applying systems engineering (SE) processes and practices throughout the system life cycle improves project performance, as measured by the project's ability to satisfy technical requirements within cost and schedule constraints."

In other words, "projects that use effective SE processes perform better than those that do not." Given this knowledge, it is in the best interest of both acquirers and suppliers to ensure that defense acquisition projects use effective SE processes as the core of the technical management effort.

Systems engineering is the primary means for determining whether and how the challenge posed by a program’s requirements can be met with available resources. It is a disciplined learning process that translates capability requirements into specific design features and thus identifies key risks to be resolved. Our prior best practices work has indicated that if programs apply detailed SE before the start of product development, the program can resolve these risks through trade-offs and additional investments, ensuring that risks have been sufficiently retired or that they are clearly understood and adequately resourced if they are being carried forward.

The same principle applies to compliance systems, whether they are for safety, security, sustainability, quality, regulatory, responsible AI, or other outcomes. We have observed that effective systems engineering processes and practices are essential for compliance to deliver its purpose, protect value creation, and earn the trust of stakeholders.

If mission success depends on compliance success, make sure you incorporate systems engineering as a key part of your team and approach.

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Lean Compliance offers an advanced program based on the principles of systems engineering along with other necessary domains . This program is called, "The Proactive Certainty Program?". You can learn more here:

The Proactive Certainty Program