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Optimizing Systems Engineering Through the Vee Model

Picture of Michael Jordan Michael Jordan : 5/31/22 2:37 PM

Systems Engineering

Systems engineering (SE) has multiple definitions, making it challenging to define the field's fundamental concepts. The misconception of systems engineering arises because it’s perceived as lacking a process or framework. With so many types of processes, it is easy to believe that we pick and choose the ones we favor. In reality, the SE process that aids any project and translates better with the team is the Vee Model.

What is the Vee Model

Systems engineering is best regarded as a set of principles, grounded in systems thinking and the systems building blocks we derive from the Vee Model. Each system engineer's experience depends on factors such as the problem and the complexity of the solution. But it will always include elements of:

Requirement Analysis: Capturing requirements and validation
Physical Design: Deciding and recording how to build the system
Logical Design: Formalizing the logic of how the systems work
Evaluation & Decision Making: Conduct trade-off studies, evaluating and selecting between feasible design alternatives
System Integration: Building a system to the point where the system seems to have come together and worked correctly, either as the prototype or as the end system
Verification: We created the system, right?
Validation: Have we satisfied the need with our system? Have we done the right job?

The V-Model

How to Read the Vee Model

The Vee Model extends the waterfall model by adding a testing phase for each development stage. Unlike the waterfall model, the Vee Model focuses on the user, implying that users are involved in all aspects of the development cycle. The Vee Model is read left to right, starting with the user’s needs and ending with the user-validated system on the right side. The model’s left side accounts for decomposition and definition activities, which resolve the system architecture and design elements. The right side focuses on integrating and verifying the system development activities. The Vee Model provides guidance for systems engineering during the project lifecycle.

Using the Vee Model in Practice

Like any process, the hardest part is the beginning. Systems engineering begins by understanding users’ needs and translating them into requirements. Converting user needs into clear, concise, and verifiable system requirements is an important part of the systems engineering process. A good requirement has characteristics of necessity, verifiability, and attainability. It can be said that many can write requirements, but very few can write good requirements that provide a solution. The following are the most common challenges in writing requirements:

making bad assumptions
writing implementation instead of requirements
describing operations instead of writing requirements
over-specifying

Setting requirements helps the team stay within the project's scope. It’s easy for teams to lose sight of the big picture, but it’s the systems engineer’s job to realign focus.

The systems engineer is the “glue” between the system's functional elements and the gatekeeper of the architectural intent and its subsequent project realization. Without a qualified person in this role, the team struggled, and this struggle is only magnified as the system's size and complexity grow. At some point, without SE, large-scale systems simply become unrealizable.