By Jorg Largent

P. A. “Trisha” Jansma spoke on the NASA Systems Engineering Framework and provided an informative and comprehensive insight into NASA’s pursuit of systems engineering. Trisha is the Lead for the NASA Systems Engineering Framework (SEF) Deployment Subgroup for the NASA Systems Engineering Working Group (SEWG) for the NASA Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE). She is also the Deployment Lead for the Systems Engineering Advancement (SEA) Project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The presentation was comprehensive, and the time limits of the speaker meeting were not an impediment to the message that NASA is deeply invested in the systems engineering process.

Topics discussed included the NASA Systems Engineering Excellence Initiative, the Systems Engineering NASA Procedural Requirement (NPR) background and rationale, the NASA SE Framework, and the implementation and deployment of the NASA SE Framework. NASA has drawn from a wide spectrum of expertise, including Bill Curtis, Chief Process Officer, Borland, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventories. NASA has also addressed the science and art of systems engineering – “art” being an often overlooked or isolated element of a project’s life cycle and the systems engineering process. NASA established its Systems Engineering Excellence Initiative in 2000 under the Office of the Chief Engineer. The Initiative has several goals. One is to stimulate and enable the development and advancement of a sound systems engineering capability necessary for success in fulfilling the challenging and ambitious goals of the NASA enterprises. Another is to address the need for consistency in the basic approach to systems engineering across the Agency and for a common systems engineering terminology. Several noteworthy concepts were put forward.

• Processes should be repeatable.
• A common failing in applying a concept is to assume “If I build it they will come.” Not if it is a well-kept secret. Communication is important. In conjunction with the need for communication was a discussion of the need for training and the value of “home-grown” systems engineers.
• “Both art and science are necessary (to the proper execution of the systems engineering process) in order to avoid over-emphasis on process and procedures.”
• No one would think of developing a system and delivering it without testing it first. We should not develop a process without testing it first.  

The presentation concluded with a question-and-answer period with questions from the audience at JPL as well as from the remote sites.