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Engineering Systems Integration
(or not). Management and systems engineers do not appear to have much
control over integration. It is as if the entire integration effort is on autopilot
with the integration effort taking on a life of its own—growing in time and
swelling in its use of resources. Metrics include inputs from customers as to
their satisfaction of the integration effort (Bahill and Briggs 2001). A word of
caution is appropriate: customers and users (sometimes domestic, sometimes
foreign) have unique metrics for their environment that may appear efficacious, but are inappropriate for an integration effort (Friedman 2010).
The disclaimer about metrics covers the pertinent issues of falsification
through specious data or data collection; willingness to acknowledge problems based on metrics; knowing what to investigate to determine root cause;
and determining the appropriateness of the metric as a determinant of interest. Having many metrics is usually the beginning of learning how integration is enabled and impacted on by the work, resources, and policies that
invigorate it. Having the right metrics provides a clear focus on the issue;
results in the correct decisions; and works toward the common goal.
The quintessential discovery, however, is to have focus on a single overall
objective to coalesce and bind the spirit and interests of both the enterprise
and the customers (and users). As such, the enterprise conspires to integrate
the customer’s decisions into the company’s decisions, integrate the customer’s needs with that of the project objectives, and integrate the customer’s
loyalty with the loyalty of that of the enterprise’s workers.
The alignment of a single metric with the goals of the organization may
not be as complicated or difficult as it may at first seem. In the case of an
enterprise whose business is to deliver access to data (a service), the single
metric of bits per second might adequately represent the totality of the business model. All business personnel would see their positions as fostering
their support and focus on the company’s metric, “provide individual users
with greater than one megabit per second.” If this metric accurately captures the goals and objectives of the enterprise as well as the customer’s
and user’s view and uses of the enterprise’s product or service, then the
primary interest among the key stakeholders is broadly and generally in
agreement. Such an enterprise might be an Internet service provider
(Internet access—a service), Internet search engine (content search—a service), or a library (content provider—a service). No doubt there may be other
metrics deemed important by the key stakeholders, but these other metrics
will always seem less important than bits per second for users. The totality
of services available to the customers and users, when combined in various
ways, should focus and maintain the customer and user loyalties to the service-providing enterprise. Yet, even though a single metric can rally enterprise support and endear customers and users, other metrics are important.
Figure 2.6 depicts a process flow diagram that relates metrics to customer,
enterprise, and project.
Figure 2.6 illustrates the driving inputs for work to be accomplished by
a project within an enterprise. From the customer, the project goals and