Alignment and Comparison of Systems Engineering Standards

Introduction

Over the past decade, a number of the standards development organizations (SDOs) and other industry associations have been working collaboratively to align the systems and software engineering standards. The objective is to have a set of standards that can easily be used concurrently due to their use of common terminology and concepts.

Problem

There has been a lack of integration both within and across SDOs. This has led to Systems and Software engineering standards that have different terminology, process sets, process structures, levels of prescription, and audiences. These differences have been both between Systems and Software, and to some extent within each. The problem has been exacerbated by competing standards, in whole or part. (Roedler 2010)

Cause

The cause of this problem includes several factors, as follows:

Culture - “We’re different”; “Not invented here”
Organizational - Different teams, committees, etc.
Competition - Many Standards Development Organizations
Domains - Focused, narrow view often doesn’t look beyond the domain for commonality

(Roedler 2010)

Impact

The impact of this problem includes the following:

Less effective or efficient processes that are not focused on leveraging commonalities. This causes redundancy and has resulted in incompatibilities, inconsistencies between the standards making it difficult to concurrently use them together.
Less effective solutions that are not focused on a common approach to solve a problem or need.
Obstacle for communicating (at all levels – disciplines, teams, etc.). working in integrated teams, and leveraging resources.
Stove-piping due to the incompatibilities, inconsistencies, and lack of leveraging commonalities.

(Roedler 2010)

Objective

The objective is to make the standards more usable together by achieving:

Common vocabulary
Single, integrated process set
Single process structure
Jointly planned level of prescription
Suitable across the audiences
Accounts for considerations in wide range of domains and applications

(Roedler 2010)

References

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