IEE 456 – Introduction to Systems Engineering
? Please submit electronically into the Week 4: Midterm by:
o Start of business, 7am Arizona Time on Monday, February 8th, 2016.
? Document MUST BE submitted in Word so that I can open it ~ don’t use any punctuation in the title of the document.
? Please name the file as: IEE456 Midterm First Last names
? Please use 12 point font and at least 1 ½ line spacing –
o Max of 2 pages for each question.
? Please place in your header your name and start a new page for each question.
? If you use any external sources you MUST document your sources. Please DO NOT simply “copy and paste” from external sources.
? If you have kept up with the class materials, this exam should take NO MORE THAN SIX (6) hours to complete!!
? Do not distribute this exam, thank you.
1. One of the fundamental issues leading to why large systems development fail is that “no specific methodology is employed”
a. (20 points) Synthesizing all you have gleaned from ISO 15288 and all the other standards, why do you believe some teams elect to not follow a specific methodology?
b. (20 points) Synthesizing all you have gleaned from ISO 15288 and all the other standards, please outline a rigorous approach to conducting a Systems Engineering development project using a Stage Gate methodology.
c. (10 points) How would you accrue value by employing this rigorous approach?
2. We introduced the concept of Systems Engineers working “Left of RFP”!
a. (20 points) What does this mean to you? Where is “Left of RFP?”
b. (10 points) What role would a Systems Engineer play?
c. (20 points) Of all the concepts we have covered in the first half of this class, which SE tools and techniques would most apply to this new role? What other tools would the SE need that we have not discussed so far?
3. We have seen the diagrams that demonstrate the inverse correlation between the CMM Level and the Cost and Errors per Lines of Code.
a. (25) So why aren’t all companies striving to achieve Level 5 CMM?
b. (25) How would you rigorously define the appropriate CMM level for an organization?
4. Critical to the whole New Product Development process are the Ideation and Innovation sub-processes. We have learned that there are three critical aspects to be addressed by Systems Engineers during these “Early Stages”: clear product definition, clear project justification / business case and clear project definition.
a. (30) For each of the three would you summarize which System Engineering tools fit best and how you would employ? Any gaps?
b. (20) Which aspect do you believe would be the most difficult to “lead” from an SE point of view and why? How could you increase the probability of success?
5. We have discussed at length the need to begin the process with Desired Customer Outcomes (DCO’s).
a. (20 points) Please outline a formal process to capture DCO’s.
b. (15 points) Please outline how you would convert these DCO’s into formal requirements. (You can use software requirements here if you wish!)
c. (15 points) We know requirements will constantly change as the system evolves. Not enough change allowed and you might miss the real customer needs. Too much change allowed and you probably get requirements creep. Please define a process to determine how to manage changing requirements over the lifetime of a large system development.

IEE 456 – Introduction to Systems Engineering
? Please submit electronically into the Week 4: Midterm by:
o Start of business, 7am Arizona Time on Monday, February 8th, 2016.
? Document MUST BE submitted in Word so that I can open it ~ don’t use any punctuation in the title of the document.
? Please name the file as: IEE456 Midterm First Last names
? Please use 12 point font and at least 1 ½ line spacing –
o Max of 2 pages for each question.
? Please place in your header your name and start a new page for each question.
? If you use any external sources you MUST document your sources. Please DO NOT simply “copy and paste” from external sources.
? If you have kept up with the class materials, this exam should take NO MORE THAN SIX (6) hours to complete!!
? Do not distribute this exam, thank you.
1. One of the fundamental issues leading to why large systems development fail is that “no specific methodology is employed”
a. (20 points) Synthesizing all you have gleaned from ISO 15288 and all the other standards, why do you believe some teams elect to not follow a specific methodology?
b. (20 points) Synthesizing all you have gleaned from ISO 15288 and all the other standards, please outline a rigorous approach to conducting a Systems Engineering development project using a Stage Gate methodology.
c. (10 points) How would you accrue value by employing this rigorous approach?
2. We introduced the concept of Systems Engineers working “Left of RFP”!
a. (20 points) What does this mean to you? Where is “Left of RFP?”
b. (10 points) What role would a Systems Engineer play?
c. (20 points) Of all the concepts we have covered in the first half of this class, which SE tools and techniques would most apply to this new role? What other tools would the SE need that we have not discussed so far?
3. We have seen the diagrams that demonstrate the inverse correlation between the CMM Level and the Cost and Errors per Lines of Code.
a. (25) So why aren’t all companies striving to achieve Level 5 CMM?
b. (25) How would you rigorously define the appropriate CMM level for an organization?
4. Critical to the whole New Product Development process are the Ideation and Innovation sub-processes. We have learned that there are three critical aspects to be addressed by Systems Engineers during these “Early Stages”: clear product definition, clear project justification / business case and clear project definition.
a. (30) For each of the three would you summarize which System Engineering tools fit best and how you would employ? Any gaps?
b. (20) Which aspect do you believe would be the most difficult to “lead” from an SE point of view and why? How could you increase the probability of success?
5. We have discussed at length the need to begin the process with Desired Customer Outcomes (DCO’s).
a. (20 points) Please outline a formal process to capture DCO’s.
b. (15 points) Please outline how you would convert these DCO’s into formal requirements. (You can use software requirements here if you wish!)
c. (15 points) We know requirements will constantly change as the system evolves. Not enough change allowed and you might miss the real customer needs. Too much change allowed and you probably get requirements creep. Please define a process to determine how to manage changing requirements over the lifetime of a large system development.