INCOSE Webinar 151: Wheatcraft 16 June 2021 Challenges of Needs and Requirements Definition and Management for Complex Systems

Defining and managing needs and requirements across the system lifecycle is increasingly challenging when developing today’s complex, software-centric systems – especially for systems that are being contracted out to suppliers. These challenges are a result of increases in: – Complexity – The role software has in the system architecture (software centric systems are the norm) – Dependencies and number of interactions between parts of the system – The interactions between a system and the macro system it is a part – The number of threats across interface boundaries and vulnerabilities to those threats – Dependencies between project management and systems engineering  Dependencies between systems engineering lifecycle process activities and artifacts – Oversight – Competition – The pressure (and need) to reduce development time and time to market – Risks (program/project, development, manufacturing, IV&V, and operational) – The number of projects that are over budget and experiencing schedule slippage During this session, Lou Wheatcraft will address these challenges and propose a methodology that will enable organizations to move from the outdated 20th century practice of systems engineering to a practice of systems engineering better suited to the development of the increasingly complex, software-centric systems typical of the 21st century.