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Integration in Systems Engineering Context
Cost, as a constraint, is apportionable by stage or over the product lifecycle.
When viewed over the product lifecycle, cost has been referred to as the total
cost of ownership. Lifecycle costs consist of the costs associated with the processes (and it can be said, with the results of the processes) within a cycle or
the product lifecycle. Lifecycle success means not overrunning cost budgets
ascribed to delivering the expected product. Since cost is deemed to a substantial measure of lifecycle success, its management is an unassailable measure of a cycle or aggregation of cycles. Cost is a consummate, independent
measure of a cycle.
Lifecycle Metrics
Combinations of measures whose relations have meaning within a framework are termed as metrics. Metrics, themselves dependent, relate multiple
independent variables to facilitate the quantification of a particular characteristic. In addition to the properties indicated for measures (germane and
quantifiable with small variance), good metrics should (1) be complete as an
indication of a particular system-level attribute (to be meaningful), (2) have
verifiable physical meaning (to avoid misuse), and (3) indicate the degree of
satisfying an ideal performance. A metric is a quantitative assessment of the
degree to which a system, component, or function possesses a given measure.
For example, metrics can be used to quantify productivity and efficiency.
Unlike measures that need not be applicable to all parts or the whole of the
system, metrics do. Optimizations occur through analyses of metrics (not
measures). Metrics are the criteria that contribute to decision making.
Lifecycle Metric: Money
Money functions as a sanctioned, legitimate means of exchange (Newlyn
1978). Investments are represented by money or other exchange of intellectual
capital. For a monetary type of investment, labor and requisite skills can be
acquired to carry out the appropriate processes within the lifecycle stages.
Depending on the activities chosen and the manner in which those activities
are performed, a product may be engineered, managed, and maintained to
achieve desirability and usefulness. The total lifecycle investment can be
considered a limitation that bounds the amount for the project and a constraint regarding the rate of expenditure for each stage.
But while the notion of investment appeals to the human nature of wanting to get the most for the money, it is instructive to think of the product as a
means to store the value of that investment. Through a medium of exchange,
money is converted into a product and participation in the outcome of the
enterprise that produced the product. The participation may be as the buyer
and user of the product (as in the case of governments contracting for goods)
or as a partner in the enterprise that is intended to benefit from the sale and
Integration in Systems Engineering Context
Cost, as a constraint, is apportionable by stage or over the product lifecycle.
When viewed over the product lifecycle, cost has been referred to as the total
cost of ownership. Lifecycle costs consist of the costs associated with the processes (and it can be said, with the results of the processes) within a cycle or
the product lifecycle. Lifecycle success means not overrunning cost budgets
ascribed to delivering the expected product. Since cost is deemed to a substantial measure of lifecycle success, its management is an unassailable measure of a cycle or aggregation of cycles. Cost is a consummate, independent
measure of a cycle.
Lifecycle Metrics
Combinations of measures whose relations have meaning within a framework are termed as metrics. Metrics, themselves dependent, relate multiple
independent variables to facilitate the quantification of a particular characteristic. In addition to the properties indicated for measures (germane and
quantifiable with small variance), good metrics should (1) be complete as an
indication of a particular system-level attribute (to be meaningful), (2) have
verifiable physical meaning (to avoid misuse), and (3) indicate the degree of
satisfying an ideal performance. A metric is a quantitative assessment of the
degree to which a system, component, or function possesses a given measure.
For example, metrics can be used to quantify productivity and efficiency.
Unlike measures that need not be applicable to all parts or the whole of the
system, metrics do. Optimizations occur through analyses of metrics (not
measures). Metrics are the criteria that contribute to decision making.
Lifecycle Metric: Money
Money functions as a sanctioned, legitimate means of exchange (Newlyn
1978). Investments are represented by money or other exchange of intellectual
capital. For a monetary type of investment, labor and requisite skills can be
acquired to carry out the appropriate processes within the lifecycle stages.
Depending on the activities chosen and the manner in which those activities
are performed, a product may be engineered, managed, and maintained to
achieve desirability and usefulness. The total lifecycle investment can be
considered a limitation that bounds the amount for the project and a constraint regarding the rate of expenditure for each stage.
But while the notion of investment appeals to the human nature of wanting to get the most for the money, it is instructive to think of the product as a
means to store the value of that investment. Through a medium of exchange,
money is converted into a product and participation in the outcome of the
enterprise that produced the product. The participation may be as the buyer
and user of the product (as in the case of governments contracting for goods)
or as a partner in the enterprise that is intended to benefit from the sale and