11
Importance of Integration
The empirical setting for integration for human-built systems is product or
service development; for nature, it is chemistry, physics, and biology. Both
human-built and naturally occurring systems are either involved with lifeforms* or not. Empirical sociology offers well-developed tools and method
ologies to help explore the subjective nature of systems engineering, systems
integration, and systems engineering integration management to uncover
the key principles (Lazarsfeld 1993).
Principle 1: The Principle of Alignment
Alignment of strategies for the business enterprise, the key stakeholders, and the
project results in better outcomes for product or service development.
The integration plan should align with the strategies of the project, of the
business enterprise in which the project is supported, and of the dealings
with key stakeholders. Knowing the needs of the project and how those
needs are supported by the business enterprise and the key stakeholders is
important in keeping high-level visibility with the decision makers. The
business enterprise has two requirements that the project must satisfy:
(1) providing revenue and profits consistent with the enterprise policies, and
(2) operating within the limited and constrained environment imposed by
the realities of the project. Fundamentally, the enterprise is in business to
make money with the projects being one of the means of fulfilling the needs
for revenue and profitability. Stakeholders have their own perspectives about
the results of the project, ranging from providing the deliverable product or
service within the limitations of budgets and schedules; satisfying some
political or social need; or perhaps responding to an issue of safety or sur
vival. Stakeholder and enterprise needs are laid out in a contractual form
before the project is begun. Laying out the requirements for the product or
service is the objective basis on which the contract is formulated and agreed.
Systems engineers place great importance on working with stakeholders to
determine requirements, verify that the work accomplished satisfies the
requirements, and deliver to satisfy the user requirements. Presumably, the
requirements satisfy a need and solve a problem for the stakeholder. Often,
one of the steps in systems engineering is to assure the customer, the user,
and other key stakeholders that the requirements have been evaluated and
matured to cover all aspects of the problem. In this basic manner, systems
engineering is fundamentally iterative. Reanalyzing, reevaluating, and
relooking the requirements help develop a comprehensive set of parameters
that can be modeled by decomposing seemingly complex objects (physical
and intellectual) into simpler objects with greater detail. These objects are
comprehensible by their nature, more easily dealt with because of their limited
scope, and readily parsed into tasks due to their definability and tractability
* No definition attempted. Life-forms are presumed to have a modicum of cognitive structure(s)
and consciousness.
Importance of Integration
The empirical setting for integration for human-built systems is product or
service development; for nature, it is chemistry, physics, and biology. Both
human-built and naturally occurring systems are either involved with lifeforms* or not. Empirical sociology offers well-developed tools and method
ologies to help explore the subjective nature of systems engineering, systems
integration, and systems engineering integration management to uncover
the key principles (Lazarsfeld 1993).
Principle 1: The Principle of Alignment
Alignment of strategies for the business enterprise, the key stakeholders, and the
project results in better outcomes for product or service development.
The integration plan should align with the strategies of the project, of the
business enterprise in which the project is supported, and of the dealings
with key stakeholders. Knowing the needs of the project and how those
needs are supported by the business enterprise and the key stakeholders is
important in keeping high-level visibility with the decision makers. The
business enterprise has two requirements that the project must satisfy:
(1) providing revenue and profits consistent with the enterprise policies, and
(2) operating within the limited and constrained environment imposed by
the realities of the project. Fundamentally, the enterprise is in business to
make money with the projects being one of the means of fulfilling the needs
for revenue and profitability. Stakeholders have their own perspectives about
the results of the project, ranging from providing the deliverable product or
service within the limitations of budgets and schedules; satisfying some
political or social need; or perhaps responding to an issue of safety or sur
vival. Stakeholder and enterprise needs are laid out in a contractual form
before the project is begun. Laying out the requirements for the product or
service is the objective basis on which the contract is formulated and agreed.
Systems engineers place great importance on working with stakeholders to
determine requirements, verify that the work accomplished satisfies the
requirements, and deliver to satisfy the user requirements. Presumably, the
requirements satisfy a need and solve a problem for the stakeholder. Often,
one of the steps in systems engineering is to assure the customer, the user,
and other key stakeholders that the requirements have been evaluated and
matured to cover all aspects of the problem. In this basic manner, systems
engineering is fundamentally iterative. Reanalyzing, reevaluating, and
relooking the requirements help develop a comprehensive set of parameters
that can be modeled by decomposing seemingly complex objects (physical
and intellectual) into simpler objects with greater detail. These objects are
comprehensible by their nature, more easily dealt with because of their limited
scope, and readily parsed into tasks due to their definability and tractability
* No definition attempted. Life-forms are presumed to have a modicum of cognitive structure(s)
and consciousness.