Optimising the Value of Systems Engineering

Abstract. This paper is a progress report on the results of a SECOE research project to collect and ana-lyze data that describes project cost, schedule, and qual-ity with systems engineering cost and quality. The original hypotheses to be tested are that (a) at low lev-els, increasing systems engineering effort results in better project quality, and (b) there is an optimum above which further increases are detrimental. The collection of data is much more difficult than antici-pated. The preliminary results are presented in an at-tempt to encourage more individuals to submit data. Analysis of the preliminary data (25 project submis-sions) supports the hypotheses. The data suggests that dimensionless ratios of actual to planned cost and actual to planned schedule correlate with an independent vari