Define a process within your organization for the consistent application of systems engineering methods

Florida DOT’s experience in adopting a systems engineering process.

Date Posted
07/07/2006
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Identifier
2006-L00284

Florida's Statewide Systems Engineering Management Plan

Summary Information

In 2002-2003, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) conducted a process review and appraisal to assess their systems engineering capability. The systems engineering process review and appraisal followed the Electronic Industries Alliance/Interim Standard (EIA/IS) 731, Systems Engineering Capability Model (SECM). This model is composed of two SECM Appraisal Methods: EIA/IS 731-1 and EIA/IS 731-2.

The results of the systems engineering process review and appraisal revealed that the FDOT ITS program had good initial technical capability for a program that had barely begun to implement systems engineering. Major weaknesses were found to be that the program had not formally implemented systems engineering and that the program had no defined organizational process for systems engineering.

Based on these results, FDOT initiated the development of a Statewide Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP), developed through a FDOT and FHWA partnership. The SEMP addresses a broad set of SE practices including concept of operations, requirement development and traceability, and system verification. The SEMP also includes templates for many of the core systems engineering practices. The SEMP can be accessed on-line at www.floridaits.com. The SEMP was finalized in March of 2005 and is now being used on all new ITS projects. The SEMP provides a consistent organizational process for the application of SE on ITS projects within the State of Florida.

Lessons Learned

Formalizing their Statewide SEMP was a major step in providing clear organizational direction for the development of ITS projects to their project staff, consultants, and contractors. Some of the lessons learned in the development and implementation of the SEMP include:

  • Define an organizational process for systems engineering to help provide project partners with a baseline for the consistent application of systems engineering practices. Make the organizational process publicly available and reference it in contract documents to be sure that consultants and contractors are aware of associated expectations.
  • Provide those developing ITS projects with good practical examples that demonstrate the application of SE processes. Methods for employing SE processes can be fairly structured and that structure is not always intuitive. Florida is in the process of including a section in their SEMP that provides good examples of applied SE practices.
  • Reference SE documentation appropriately. Subsequent SE documentation builds on baseline SE documentation, so it is critical to reference all baseline documents for continuity of original project expectations. If baseline documents are incorrect, then the follow-on documents will be incorrect. That is one reason why configuration management is stressed in SE.
  • Bring construction and maintenance personnel, consultants and contractors into the SE training process. Involving all project partners in the SE training process helps to make certain that those involved with the project will be on the same page and be able to achieve the expected project goals and objectives.
  • Do not unnecessarily complicate your application of SE. Systems engineering tools are relatively scalable for individual projects (e.g., smaller projects/systems require fewer system requirements).



Florida found in the past that not having a defined approach to the development and management of ITS projects resulted in a lack of consistent oversight and control of the technical elements of these projects. Systems engineering is a process known for aiding in the control of cost, schedule, and technical performance of complex systems. Formalizing a defined organizational process for SE is one example of how Florida is providing a shared vision of ITS project development and management, and providing the direction necessary to successfully control project activities and verify system performance.



Florida's work fosters ITS goals of increasing customer satisfaction and improving productivity. Systems engineering is a user-needs driven process and provides tools to measure user/customer satisfaction. In addition, SE practices are designed to simplify complex processes while maximizing work productivity.

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