Defining a Model-Based Systems Engineering Approach for Milestone Technical Reviews

Abstract

Program technical reviews are discrete points in time, within a system’s lifecycle, where the system is evaluated against a set of specific accomplishments, known as “entrance criteria.” These entrance criteria are used to track the technical progress, schedule, and program risks. The technical reviews serve as gates, that when successfully evaluated, demonstrate that the program is on track to achieve its final program goals, and should be allowed to proceed to the next acquisition phase. Current technical reviews are based around lengthy evaluations of static, contractually obligated documents that are used to demonstrate successful completion of the entrance criteria. These documents represent “snap-shots” of the systems as seen through the prism of the entrance criteria, and do not represent a view of the system in its totality. As a result, the program, and system, are often viewed by the entrance criteria alone, which fail to account for the system from a holistic perspective. Department of Defense (DoD) organizations are migrating to Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environments, with a vision of modernizing, and better developing, delivering, operating and sustaining systems. This transition is important because advances in technology have led to larger and more complex systems. This implies: a need for a clear concise way to express the system design (clear, logically consistent semantics); and, a need to represent systems differently to account for emergent behavior within the system due to the increased complexity. Model-based reviews allow for complexity to be managed more efficiently because data, not “systems engineering products,” is the commodity that will be used to evaluate the entrance criteria. The data-driven MBSE technical reviews will provide greater insights with faster comprehension for the details across a program’s lifecycle. This will not only provide efficiencies for the technical reviews, but will improve the program’s cost and schedule efficiency. This technical report highlights the results of our FY19 Acquisition Research Project. It: defines a systematic processes for developing the virtual model of the system, as the program progresses through the acquisition lifecycle; defines how the model of the system can be used as in lieu of “artifacts” to provide decision-makers with a more complete representation of the system during technical reviews; and assesses the suitability of existing technical review criteria to MBSE-based reviews.