Research on Development and Application of Tools to Assist the OSD Office of Systems Engineering

This paper, in the form of an annotated briefing, covers several topics related to systems engineering. It summarizes the key points found in literature on how to size systems engineering efforts and discusses the issues with those findings. We then present a proposal for empirically evaluating if systems engineering is under-resourced and how systems engineering metrics and program-specific characteristics will affect the proper level of systems engineering funding. The paper also focuses on improving the early acquisition process e.g., pre-Milestone A through the use of physics-based analysis in conducting cost and capability trades. We discuss at a micro and macro level the process for conducting physics-based analysis, the expected outcomes, and how they can be utilized within the current acquisition process to identify and avoid critical issues. Specifically, we focus on how to use physics and engineering principles and pre-Milestone A programmatic information to evaluate how the system level capability e.g., key performance parameter trade space will affect costs.