Modern organisations that want to compete successfully and achieve their strategic and profit objectives need the business benefits that only IT technology can provide. However, experience and research has shown that there is a high risk that IT projects do not deliver the expected business benefits.
The way out of this apparent Catch 22 situation is the utilisation of methodologies that can minimise this risk. System Engineering is an engineering methodology that originated in aviation, space and military industries, and has a proven track record that ensures large and complex projects are delivered predictably and with quality.
What is system engineering?
A broad definition of system engineering is: All the actions that are performed from the moment that the supplier delivers the product(s), up to the moment that the client has a working system that provides the functionality required to meet its business objectives.
For example, Microsoft XP is a product that is delivered on a CD. This product is of no value to a client, as long as it remains on the CD. System Engineering needs to be applied to this product. The actions performed typically include inserting the CD in the computer, entering a product code, pressing a number of buttons, registering the product, adding a printer and customising the desktop.
The system engineering associated with Microsoft XP is so simple, that the internal IT department of most organisations can confidently handle the system engineering by itself. As soon as the product becomes more complex (eg Linux) or larger (eg the installation of Linux on 10 000 computers), an organisation might consider getting external expertise to assist with the system engineering.
Large and complex systems
Larger organisations often need solutions to meet business objectives that require multiple products integrated with each other and with legacy systems. In order to ensure that such a complex system provides the functions required to meet the business objectives, a much more structured form of system engineering is needed. This is the more specific meaning of the phrase system engineering. System engineering has its origin in extremely large and complex aviation, military and space projects. Nowadays it is increasingly proving to be valuable in the IT industry, to ensure that large and complex IT projects are delivered predictably with high quality. This is not surprising in an industry where research (Standish Group, 2001) has shown that 72% of projects were not viewed as successful.
This form of System Engineering is formalised, developed and promoted by the InterNational Council on System Engineering (INCOSE).
System Engineering aspects
System engineering addresses the following aspects of a project:
* Business requirement engineering (including translating business objectives into system requirements, capturing IT requirements)
* System analysis and design
* Infrastructure specification (including power, network, etc, that must be supplied by client)
* System development, integration and testing
* Performance and load testing
* System qualification (including user acceptance testing)
* System deployment (including migration and data take-on)
* Post-deployment support and handover (including documentation and training)
These aspects must be governed by the following processes:
* Program management
* Project management
* Configuration management (including baseline definition, release management, change control)
* Conclusion
Tsohle has its origin in people with experience in System Engineering that are applying this experience in the IT industry. The successful delivery of several large and complex IT projects by these people proves the value of System Engineering. Tsohle is also involved in the local activities of INCOSE.
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