Product Development and

Systems Engineering
System Development Life Cycle

Dr. Absaar Ul Jabbar

School of Interdisciplinary Engineering and Sciences (SINES)
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)
H-12, Islamabad.

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Learning Objectives

• To get an overview of various phases of a typical System Development

Life Cycle (SDLC)

• To understand the role of Systems Engineer in various phases

• To understand decision gate reviews in SDLC

• To know various subphases involved in SDLC phases

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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

INCOSE SE Process 5
System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

INCOSE SE Process 6
Decision Gate Reviews
• Each phase of SDLC is separated by Decision Gates/ Milestones/
Reviews

• Opportunity for the stakeholders to gather and review the progress

• Ensure activities are in alignment with expectations of stakeholders

• Ensure upcoming phases can be accomplished in given budget, time

and resources

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The Concept Phase

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 The Concept Phase

Mission Development
Statement Establish Generate Select Test Set Plan Plan
Identify
Target Product Product Product Final Downstream
Customer Needs
Specifications Concepts Concept(s) Concept(s) Specifications Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products

Build and Test Models and Prototypes

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 The Concept Phase
Mission Development
Statement Establish Generate Select Test Set Plan Plan
Identify
Target Product Product Product Final Downstream
Customer Needs
Specifications Concepts Concept(s) Concept(s) Specifications Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products

Build and Test Models and Prototypes

• Requires more coordination than any other phase

• Concept development phases shown are rarely sequential
• Mostly overlapped and iterative
• Dashed arrows refelct the uncertain nature of the progress in concept
developmment phase
Identify Stakeholders Needs
• Goal:
To understand Stakeholders’ needs and to effectively
communicate them to the development team.

• Output:
A set of carefully constructed customer need statements,
organized in a hierarchical list, with importance weightings for
many or all needs.
Establishing Target Specification
• Specifications are the translation of the customer needs into technical
terms.
• Also called “product requirements” or “engineering characteristics”.
Example:
Customer need: A bike suspension is easy to install.
• Specification: the average time to assemble the fork to the frame is
less than 75 seconds.
• Refined later to be consistent with the constraints imposed by the
team’s choice of a product concept.
• Output of this stage is a list of target specifications.
Concept Generation
Goal:
Brainstorm different product concepts that may address the customer
needs.
Output:
10 to 20 different product concepts that may satisfy the customer needs
• Concepts are represented by a sketch and brief discription

Concept Selection
• Various product concepts are analyzed and sequentially eliminated to
identify the most promising concept(s).
• Target specifications play an important role in decisions
Concept Testing
• One or more concepts are then tested to verify that the stakeholder
needs have been met.

Setting Final Specifications

• The target specifications set earlier in the process are revisited after a
concept has been selected and tested.
Project Planning
• Final activity of the concept development phase
• A detailed development schedule and strategy to minimize development
time, and identifies the resources required to complete the project.

Economic Analysis
• PD&D team + Financial analyst build economic model of the product
• Used to
• justify higher management for the contiuation of the development project
• Resolve specific trade-offs
• An ongoing activity in PDnSE process
Benchmarking of competitive products
• Critical for successful positioning of the product into the market
• Provide many ideas to the PD&D team

Modeling and Prototyping

• Various forms of models and prototypes are required to support
different stages of concept development process
• Proof-of-concept models: To help demonstrate the concept feasibility
• Form-only models: Shown to customers for ergnomics and style analysis
• Spreadsheet models: To discuss technical trade-offs
• Experimental test models: To set design parameters for robust performance
System Development Phase

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System Development Phase

System-Level Detail Testing and

Design Design Refinement

System Spec Critical Design Production

Review Review Approval

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System Development Phase

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System Production Phase

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 System Production Phase

• Conduct validation testing

• Setup and refine production line
• Integrate design changes
• Begin deploying system
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System Production Phase

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Utilization Phase

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 Utilization Phase

• System deployed and used in intended operational environment

• Discrepancies are discovered by users
• Enhancements and upgrades are integrated
• Begin deploying system
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Support Phase

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 Support Phase

• System is maintained
• System updates may be incorporated

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Retirement Phase

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 Retirement Phase

• System is prepared and disposed off

• Infrastructure is shut down or re-aligned to other systems

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