Dr. David Endler

Systems Engineering

Personal Attitude

Many system development projects fail because of insufficient systems engineering activities in the very early phases of the development. And it is the very early stages when decisions are made that fix a significant amount of the total system cost. Here total system cost is to be understood as the sum of cost accumulating from concept through development, production, operation and support to disposal.

Consequently, it is more than advisable to establish and follow processes when setting up complex projects. Over the last years many systems have been implemented successfully. And many people who successfully performed systems engineering within these projects have provided their input to systems engineering standards.

Even more good news: some of them are accessible free of charge. In my opinion, it is not too important which one of the standards or models is chosen to be followed. From my experience it is more important to really have a structured approach implemented, to make sure that it is followed and, not to forget, is understood by the whole team involved in the project. This reduces the risk to forget something important significantly and therefore, considerably enhances the probability to successfully bring the system under consideration to the market.

“Worth It!”