System Life Cycle Processes

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Components: are the building blocks of a system, the parts which when assembled together forms the larger system and the system would stop functioning should a component be removed. Simply put, components are the elements (subsystems) that make up the system of interest. For example: ISO 9001 Certification Scheme.

Attributes: refers to the properties of the components, what the components are expected to do or contain. For example: Company Name.

Relationships: the behaviour properties, the links/relations that occur between components and attributes. These are descriptions of how the components and attributes function together. For example: audit report or ISO 9001 certificate.

Yes, I concur. Indeed, "Form should follow Function" because to create a system the first important step is to understand the user’s needs or requirements to be satisfied. This is to understand its purpose i.e. why the system is needed. Understanding the user need enables the elaboration of user requirements. It is then that the function of the system can be defined i.e. clearly articulating what the system must achieve which entails establishing the system requirements. A decision on the form can them be made i.e. how the system would operate to satisfy the functionality through component requirements.

Purpose

(User requirements)

Function

(System requirements)

Form

(Component requirements)

Fig 1: Form follows function

Yes, "Form should follow Function" is related to the Strategic Management notion of "Structure follows Strategy". This is because formulating the strategy is like deciding on the requirements for the organization i.e. its purpose and function. Once the strategy or function of the company is established, decisions on the establishing the company structure or form can be made.

Question 4

Technology management should be an integral part and influence all the lifecycle phases of a product and in every process in the company from the development phase, manufacturing phase as well as the operational and support phase. Technology management seeks to create required capabilities to profitably to develop, manufacture and support products.

The modern company should integrate the process of determining its line of business and the technological capabilities needed to ensure business success. During product development phase, technology can serve as the product. During product design the technologies to manufacture and support the product should be factored and mastered. During the manufacturing phase technology can serve as a process ensuring the company is able to manufacture the designed product. During the operational phase, technology can serve as a function to support the manufactured products.

Question 5

Manufacturing and logistics personnel should be an integral part of the product development teams in company to ensure that the designed product can be manufactured and supportable. Arrow A represents the inputs of the manufacturing expertise during product development phase. This consequently means that during this time the manufacturing personnel are doing development work. This facilitates the consideration of manufacturing process requirements early in the development phase.

Question 6

Adaptability towards customer specific requirements. Product ranges ensure product line diversification thus give the customer the opportunity to select product options they want suited to their cost. For example when purchasing certain cars, a customer has the option to include or exclude features such as air-conditioning, electric windows, fog lights amongst others.

Modular design extends the useful life of a product by making it upgradeable. This is achieved through the provision of system upgrades where modules or components can be replaced without affecting the design. This makes the designs readily maintainable and ensures the product changes with advances in technology or changes in customer requirements.

Standardization: modules and interfaces become standardized thus simplifying manufacturing.

Modular design revolves around the function of the part of sub-system.

Question 7

The physical manufacturing process: this involves the actual physical activities undertaken to realize the products such as painting, fabrication, welding, assembling of the components, etc.

The physical material management process: this process entails the physical movement of material from suppliers to the manufacturer.

The information management process: the management of information during the physical manufacturing process and the physical movement of material.

Question 8

The sub-processes of the support process include maintenance and supply support. Maintenance involves activities towards ensuring availability of a product for service and can either be preventive (scheduled actions to retain the system) or corrective (unscheduled actions to restore) to ensure the system performs to specified levels. Supply support involves delivery of support services to the client by the supplier either as maintenance or supply of spare parts or information on the products and service.

The INCOSE Handbook support processes focus on the maintenance process which includes activities to provide operations support, logistics and material management. Maintenance can be corrective, adaptive, perfective and preventive actions. The purpose of maintenance is to sustain the capability of the system to provide a system. Supply is not only supportive to maintenance alone. Support processes can influence systems requirements and the design.

Question 9

Make/Buy decisions should be made during the development phase. The company must decide whether they have all the required processes, knowledge and skills to design and manufacture the product in-house or not. This is critical as the make/buy decision influences the data structure of the product design and the manufacturing process. When the decision is to make, during the development phase the company should also involve manufacturing expertise including consideration of the availability of manufacturing facilities or capital to acquire them, . When the decision is to buy, the company should consider the availability of external manufacturing facilities and possibly the involvement of those vendors during product development. An example of make/buy decisions is the automobile industry where companies design the vehicle models with the components / parts being made or outsourced to various suppliers in numerous locations around the world including assembly of the cars.

Question 10

Yes. Since the development and manufacture of most high technology products require various disciplines and since one individual company seldom possess all the capabilities for the wide range of technologies, certain aspects are contracted to other capable companies. The activities carried out by the different entities have to be managed and integrated. Thus procurement has to be effectively and efficiently managed to ensure the overall profitability and that procured products and services are seamlessly integrated into the company’s project or product streams.

Question 11

Figure 5 depicts the Porter Value Chain with primary activities as inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales and service and the main areas of support including firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development and procurement. Porter stresses the importance of communication throughout the value chain especially in a multi-supplier, multi-product and multi-customer environment. The total value chain must be integrated and optimised ensuring the management of material and information flow from supplier up to end user. The value chain identifies product-related matters which include inbound logistics, operations and service and market-related matters of outbound logistics and marketing and sales.

Question 12

ISO/IEC 15288:2008, Systems and software engineering — System life cycle processes

Question 13

Technical processes are used to define the requirements for the system of interest and design the system, subsystems, and components from definition of the stakeholder’s requirements to disposal. They are a sequence of activities taken throughout the life cycle of the product. They are the activities which transform the stakeholder’s requirements into the desired product. Technical processes enable the creation of the technical vision of the final product and transform needs of the user into a system. They serve to reduce the risk of project failure.

Project processes are used to manage technical process activities and assure attainment of agreement processes. They are used to establish the project plan and any adjustments, implementation of the project plan, measuring progress and direction of the project until project completion.

Agreement processes symbolize the formalization of the supplier-user business relationship through agreements / contracts detailing the extent/boundaries/scope of the service required.

Organizational project-enabling processes are related to the provision of resources required to ensure the project satisfies the customer’s needs and expectations.

Question 14

Figure 2-4 represents the commitment to reducing the risks inherent in new systems or modifications due to changes and complexity of products, services and society. It is based on actual life cycle cost (LCC) performed on projects by the US Department of Defence. Of the total LCC on a new system, the LCC for the Concept Stage averages 8% committing 70% of the project costs. The Design Phase is achieved after the 15% committing 85% of the project costs.

LCC committed by project decisions are represented by a curve and indicates that that when 20% of the actual cost has been accrued, 80% of the total LCC cost has already been determined. The diagonal under the curve represents cost to extract defects indicating it get more expensive to fix defects.

Question 15

Figure 2-5 represents the number of years it takes from an initial prototype to achieve market penetration. Over the past half century, the number of years for a new product to achieve market penetration from prototype has reduced by a factor of four thus over the century technology development has escalated.

Question 16

The Generic Lifecycle presented in the revised ISO 15288:2002 is different from the other life cycle models as utilization and support stages run in parallel. Also the Generic Life Cycle is made up of 6 stages whereas Typical High-Tech Commercial Systems Integrator and the Typical High-Tech Commercial Manufacturer has three distinct period made up of a total of ten (10) and nine (9) phases respectively.

Similarity between the life stages is that stages can overlap. The Concept Stage is aligned with the Study Period. The lifecycle models have the same decision gates.

Question 17

The Vee Model is used to depict the Concept and Development stages. The focus of the Vee is the definition of verification plans during requirements development, the need for continuous validation with stakeholders and the importance of continuous risk and opportunity assessment. Movement from the right to left represents maturity of the system.

Question 18

Users: ISO/IEC15288:2008 defines a user as individual or group that benefits from a system during its utilization. It is prudent to note that the user may simultaneously or sequentially also be the operator. Users represent the most important source of requirements. Users possess detailed information about the problems and user needs.

Systems in operational environment: this includes similar existing systems in use or previously used by the stakeholders whether designed by the producer or competitors. Systems in operation useful for educing requirements, especially with regards to a project(s) involving upgrades or replacement of current system(s).

Stakeholders are parties who are interested or affected by the final system of interest. Stakeholders such as customers can easily be identified but a wider consultation of stakeholders is critical.