SE 1.0 System Design
SE 1.0 System Design
Developing stakeholder expectations, defining technical requirements, performing logical decomposition, and defining design solutions to result in a validated set of requirements and a design solution that will meet requirements and satisfy the set of stakeholder expectations.
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Categories and Competencies
Common Competencies
SE 1.1 Stakeholder Expectations Definition and Management
Eliciting and defining use cases, scenarios, the concept of operations, and stakeholder expectations. This includes identifying stakeholders, establishing support strategies, establishing a set of Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs), validating stakeholder expectation statements, and obtaining commitments from the customer and other stakeholders, as well as using the baselined stakeholder expectations for product validation during product realization.
Underlying Skills
- Clear verbal and written communications
- Developing and maintaining professional relationships
- Effective interviewing
- Win-win negotiating
Fundamental Knowledge of:
- Project mission, goals, objectives, and requirements
- Internal (to project) organizational structure
- External (to project) NASA organizational structure and political environment
Explore proficiencies for each role.
Discipline EngineerParticipates as a team member to gain an overall understanding of the Stakeholder Expectation Definition and Management Process and to gain initial experience in the competency.
Discipline Engineers should be able to:
- Understand the Stakeholder Expectation Definition Process.
- Participate as part of a team to identify key internal stakeholders.
- Participate as part of a team to interview internal stakeholders.
- Assist in recording responses.
- Support the team to synthesize into needs, goals, and objectives (NGOs).
- Begin to develop relationships with key internal stakeholders.
Subsystem Lead
Leads teams at the subsystem level in stakeholder expectation definition and management. Provides guidance and expertise at the subsystem level, identifying subsystem issues.
Subsystem Leads should be able to:
- Identify key internal and external stakeholders.
- Perform solo interviews with internal stakeholders.
- Participate as part of a team for interviews of external stakeholders.
- Translate stakeholder expectations into needs, goals, and objectives for review by the team.
- Create measures of effectiveness (MOEs) from some of the stakeholder expectation statements for review by the team.
- Participate as part of a team to validate the set of expectations.
Project Systems Engineer
Leads teams at the project level in stakeholder expectation definition and management. Provides guidance and expertise at the project level, resolving project issues.
Project Systems Engineers should be able to:
- Lead the team to identify key internal and external stakeholders.
- Perform interviews with external stakeholders.
- Obtain internal key stakeholder commitments to validate expectations.
Chief Engineer
Leads overall effort, reviews and approves products, resolves issues, and maintains relationships for the highest level of internal, external, and international contacts.
Chief Engineers should be able to:
- Manage the overall effort.
- Approve final results.
- Perform interviews and maintain relationships with the highest level internal and external stakeholders.
- Identify, describe, and define stakeholder expectation definition policies for the agency and/or center.
SE 1.2 Technical RequirementsDefinition
Transforming the baseline stakeholder expectations into unique, quantitative, and measurable technical requirements expressed as “shall” statements that can be used for defining the design solution. This includes analyzing the scope of the technical problems to be solved, defining constraints affecting the designs, defining the performance requirements, validating the resulting technical requirement statements, defining the Measures of Performance (MOPs) for each MOE, and defining appropriate Technical Performance Measures (TPMs) by which technical progress will be assessed.
Underlying Skills
- Clear verbal and written communications
- Effective application of NASA’s SE Engine
- Effective use of selected requirements capturing and tracking tools
- Working in teams
Fundamental Knowledge of:
- Project mission, goals, and objectives
- Project Concept of Operations, use cases, and expected scenarios
- Requirements management process
Explore proficiencies for each role.
Discipline EngineerParticipates as a team member to gain an overall understanding of the Technical Requirements Definition Process and to gain initial experience in the competency.
Discipline Engineers should be able to:
- Understand the Technical Requirements Definition process.
- Participate as part of a team to gather and integrate requirements developed by Subject Matter Experts.
- Input some results into the requirements tool.
- Identify inconsistencies within a discipline area.
- Review and comment on selected MOPs and TPMs.
Subsystem Lead
Proficiency Level
- Leads teams at the subsystem level in technical requirements definition.
- Provides guidance and expertise at the subsystem level, identifying subsystem issues.
Subsystem Leads should be able to:
- Interpret some stakeholder functional and performance expectations into technical terms within a discipline for review by the team.
- Participate in identifying constraints from stakeholder expectations.
- Collaborate with Subject Matter Experts to refine requirements within a discipline.
- Identify inconsistencies across some discipline areas.
- Review requirements for proper format.
Project Systems Engineer
Leads teams at the project level in technical requirements definition. Provides guidance and expertise at the project level, resolving project issues.
Project Systems Engineers should be able to:
- Lead the team in developing and validating a set of requirements.
- Identify inconsistencies and proper format across the entire set of requirements.
- Define and selects a set of measures to be used.
Chief Engineer
Leads overall effort, reviews and approves products, resolves issues, and maintains relationships with the highest level internal, external, and international contacts.
Chief Engineers should be able to:
- Manage the overall effort.
- Approve final results.
- Provide guidance and mentoring regarding the requirements definition and validation efforts of the team.
- Identify, describe, and define technical requirement policies for the Agency and/or Center.
SE 1.3 Logical Decompostion
Transforming the defined set of technical requirements into a set of logical decomposition models and their associated set of derived technical requirements for lower levels of the system and for input to the design solution efforts. This includes decomposing and analyzing by function, time, behavior, data flow, object, and other models. It also includes allocating requirements to these decomposition models, resolving conflicts between derived requirements as revealed by the models, defining a system architecture for establishing the levels of allocation, and validating the derived technical requirements.
Underlying Skills
- Clear verbal and written communications
- Development and effective use of flow charts, behavior diagrams, and other selected modeling tools
- Effective application of NASA’s SE Engine
- Systems thinking
- Working in teams
Fundamental Knowledge of:
- Project mission, goals, and objectives
- Project Concept of Operations, use cases, and expected scenarios
- Project requirements
Explore proficiencies for each role.
Discipline EngineerParticipates as a team member to gain an overall understanding of the Logical Decomposition Process and to gain initial experience in the competency.
Discipline Engineers should be able to:
- Understand the Logical Decomposition Process.
Participate as part of a team to gather and integrate flow diagrams developed by Subject Matter Experts. - Input some results into the modeling tool.
- Identify inconsistencies within a discipline area.
- Review and comment on the proposed architecture.
Subsystem Lead
Proficiency Level
- Leads teams at the subsystem level in logical decomposition.
- Provides guidance and expertise at the subsystem level, identifying subsystem issues.
Subsystem Leads should be able to:
- Develop some flow/behavior diagrams and models for review by the team.
- Collaborate with Subject Matter Experts to refine models within a discipline.
- Support the architecture definition activities.
- Allocate requirements to architecture.
- Identify inconsistencies across some discipline areas.
Project Systems Engineer
Leads teams at the project level in logical decomposition. Provides guidance and expertise at the project level, resolving project issues.
Project Systems Engineers should be able to:
- Lead the team in developing and validating diagrams, models, architecture, and requirements allocation.
- Identify inconsistencies across the entire architecture.
Chief Engineer
Leads overall effort, reviews and approves products, resolves issues, and maintains relationships with the highest level internal, external, and international contacts.
Chief Engineers should be able to:
- Manage the overall effort.
- Approve final results.
- Provide guidance and mentoring in the logical decomposition efforts of the team.
- Identify, describe, and define logical decomposition policies for the agency and/or center.
SE 1.4 Design Solution Definition
Translating the decomposition models and derived requirements into one or more design solutions and using the Decision Analysis process to analyze each alternative and for selecting a preferred alternative that will satisfy the technical requirements. A full technical data package is developed describing the selected solution. This includes generating a full design description for the selected solution; developing a set of “make-to,” “buy-to,” “reuse-to,” specifications; and initiating the development or acquisition of system products and enabling products.
Underlying Skills
- Clear verbal and written communications
- Deep understanding of one or more technical disciplines
- Effective application of design and visualization tools
- Effective application of NASA’s SE Engine
- General understanding of all disciplines involved in the design
- Systems thinking
- Working in teams
Fundamental Knowledge of:
- Project mission, goals, and objectives
- Project Concept of Operations, use cases, and expected scenarios
- Project requirements
- Project architecture
- Functional and behavior diagrams or models
- Existing suitable designs that could be reused or purchased off-the-shelf
Explore proficiencies for each role.
Discipline EngineerParticipates as a team member to gain an overall understanding of the Design Solution Definition Process and to gain initial experience in the competency.
Discipline Engineers should be able to:
- Understand the Design Solution Definition Process.
- Participate as part of a team to perform market surveys and to gather designs from Subject Matter Experts.
- Input some results into modeling tools.
- Identify inconsistencies within a discipline area.
- Review and comment on proposed solutions.
Subsystem Lead
Proficiency Level
- Leads teams at the subsystem level in design solution definition.
- Provides guidance and expertise at the subsystem level, identifying subsystem issues.
Subsystem Leads should be able to:
- Develop criteria for selecting the design solution for review by team.
- Collaborate with Subject Matter Experts to develop and review design solutions within a discipline.
- Identify inconsistencies across some discipline areas.
- Review design descriptions.
Project Systems Engineer
Proficiency Level
- Leads teams at the project level in design solution definition.
- Provides guidance and expertise at the project level, resolving project issues.
Project Systems Engineers should be able to:
- Lead the team in developing design solutions.
- Identify inconsistencies across designs.
- Coordinate peer reviews of the design and the design descriptions.
- Recommend designs for selection.
Chief Engineer
Leads overall effort, reviews and approves products, resolves issues, and maintains relationships with the highest level internal, external, and international contacts.
Chief Engineers should be able to:
- Manage the overall effort.
- Approve final results.
- Provide guidance and mentoring in the design solution efforts of the team.
- Identify, describe, and define design solution policies for the agency and/or center.