Systems Engineering Organizational Strategy

An organization's strategy for performing systems engineering will vary according to many factors including the degree to which SE activities align with organizational purpose. In developing a strategy for performing SE, organizations need to consider the following:

What is the organizational purpose and how does SE fit in?
How should the SE activities be allocated among the various organizational entities to support this purpose?
Who performs the SE activities within each level of organization?
What competencies are expected from the parts of the organization that perform SE activities and how does that part of the organization gain those competencies?
What does an organization need to do to improve and how does it do it?
How do those who perform systems engineering activities interact with others in the organization?

These considerations are largely driven by three factors:

The characteristics of the system which the SE activities support; for example, the size, complexity, primary design factors, major components, critical specialties and areas of life cycle, required products, etc…
The organizational context in which the SE activities occur, including organizational purpose, value measures, and culture.
The phases of the life cycle in which the activities being performed; for example development, deployment, operations, or maintenance of a product or service.

In this discussion, the term "organization" applies generically to one or more of the following, each covered as a knowledge area in this part: