Systems Engineering Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition

10ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT

10.1 REDUCING PROGRAM RISKS

The advanced development phase is that part of the system development cycle in which the great majority of the uncertainties inherent in the selected system concept are resolved through analysis, simulation, development, and prototyping. The principal purpose of the advanced development phase is to reduce the potential risks in the development of a new complex system to a level where the functional design of all previously unproven subsystems and components has been validated. At its conclusion, the risks of discovering serious problems must be sufficiently low that full-scale engineering may be begun with confidence. This phase’s primary objectives are to develop, where necessary, and validate a sound technical approach to the system design and to demonstrate it to those who must authorize the full-scale development of the system.

The general methodology of accomplishing risk reduction is discussed in Chapter 5 in the section on risk management. The components of risk management are described as risk assessment, in which risks are identified and their magnitude assessed, and risk mitigation, in which the potential damage to the development is eliminated or reduced. This chapter is concerned with typical sources of risks encountered in the early phases of developments of complex systems and the methods for their mitigation.

To accomplish the above objectives, the degree of definition of the system design and its description ...