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Herbert Hecht, "System Engineering for Software Intensive Projects"
The technical shortcomings of major software-intensive projects, as well as their
cost overruns and schedule slippages, are usually attributed to poor management
practices. We hope to show that the application of established systems engineering
techniques can help to overcome, or at least to reduce, the difficulties that are
encountered in the development of large information processing and automated control
systems. The paper focuses on two life cycle events that have been identified in
government studies as causes of the unsatisfactory outcomes: requirements formulation
and early assessment of system capabilities. It is shown that establishing a figure
of merit (FOM) for the primary system function at the outset of development helps
in the management of requirements as well as in the early assessment of the system
capabilities. An example of trade-off methodology, an important system engineering
tool that can be applied throughout the life cycle, is also presented.
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