Systems Engineering Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition

13INTEGRATION AND EVALUATION

13.1 INTEGRATING, TESTING, AND EVALUATING THE TOTAL SYSTEM

As its name implies, the integration and evaluation phase has the objectives of assembling and integrating the engineered components of the new system into an effectively operating whole, and demonstrating that the system meets all of its operational requirements. The goal is to qualify the system’s engineering design for release to production and subsequent operational use.

As previously noted, the systems engineering life cycle model defines integration and evaluation as a separate phase of system development because its objectives and activities differ sharply from those of the preceding portion called the engineering design phase. These differences are also reflected in changes in the primary participants engaged in carrying out the technical effort.

If all of the building blocks of a new system were correctly engineered, and if their design was accurately implemented, their integration and subsequent evaluation would be relatively straightforward. In reality, when a team of contractors develops a complex system during a period of rapidly evolving technology, the above conditions are never fully realized. Hence, the task of system integration and evaluation is always complex and difficult and requires the best efforts of expert technical teams operating under systems engineering leadership.

The success of the integration and evaluation effort is also highly dependent on the advance planning ...