Author

Philip Tarnoff
Director
Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT)
E-mail: tarnoff@eng.umd.edu
Phone: (301) 403-4619

Description

This course is an introduction to systems engineering for ITS project managers and project staff. It provides a high-level view of a broad and rich topic area, introducing basic concepts to individuals who are working on ITS projects. The goal is to allow these individuals to understand the benefits of applying systems engineering approaches as a means of developing quality systems. The course covers technical practices such as modeling, prototyping, trade-off analysis and testing, and management practices such as risk assessment and mitigation, which make up "best practices" in the systems engineering arena.

This course is part of the core Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) curriculum established by the ITS Professional Capacity Building (PCB) program. For more information on the core curriculum, click here.

What is an Instructor-led, Web-based course?

A “blended” course combines the best features of both instructor-led and web-based instruction. These features include:

• Live discussions with the instructor through the use of conference calls,
• Convenient, flexible web-based learning,
• A specific time schedule in which to complete the course, and
• Interaction with other students through the use of class problems posted on a discussion board.

Objectives

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Define Systems Engineering and its application to ITS.
• Describe the system's life cycle and its relationship to systems engineering.
• Develop, derive, and validate requirements for a system.
• List the systems engineering tools available to mitigate risk.
• Define and apply the concept of earned value as a tracking mechanism.
• List three alternative strategies that may be applied to decision making under uncertainty.
• Identify where to find appropriate standards for developing ITS projects.
• Identify resources that may help project personnel to look at systems as a whole.

Audience

Transportation engineers and other practicing ITS professionals or technical persons at all levels of government and in the private sector. ITS project managers, technical team members, contractors, and staff are all appropriate participants. Project managers would particularly benefit from this course since they direct many peoples' efforts. Any level of professionals involved in ITS may attend to broaden their understanding of complex systems, beyond current technical knowledge.

Length

Approximately eight to ten hours.

Prerequisites

Some familiarity with the management and operation of surface transportation services and facilities.

Course Outline

Numbers in parentheses refer to pages.

Module A - Fundamental Aspects of Systems Engineering (86 pages)

Lesson 1- Introduction to Systems Engineering (p 1-29)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Review of the notions of system, subsystem and component
• Exercise: "Build an Electronic Toll Collection System"
• Introduction to the systems engineering process
• Definition of systems engineering
• Effect of Final Rule on ITS Standards and Conformity (Federal Rule 23 CFR 940) on systems engineering projects
• Importance and purpose of systems engineering
• Systems engineering activities
• Systems engineering participants
• Identification of participants
• Respective roles in project development
• The three "Keys to Success" of systems engineering
• Planning for change
• Managing expectations
• Iterative development
• Lesson summary

Lesson 2 - Systems Engineering Process Models (p 1-23)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Introduction to systems engineering process models
• Definition of contracting
• Contracting decisions in relation to project development
• Importance of contracting
• The "V" representation of life cycle
  • Description of the steps of the "V" diagram
• Definition and decomposition
• The "V" diagram and Federal Rule 940
• Agency involvement at various stages of project development
• Cross-cutting activities throughout project life cycle
• The waterfall model
  • Characteristics
• The evolutionary development model
• Characteristics
• Chronological representation
• Comparison of the waterfall and evolutionary models
• Lesson summary

Lesson 3 - Systems Engineering and Procurement (p 1-34)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Introduction to the contracting process
• Definition of contracting
• Contracting decisions in relation to project development
• Importance of contracting
• Contracting approaches
  • Consultant/contractor
  • Systems manager
  • Design/build
  • Task orders
  • Other approaches
• Degree of agency involvement
• Lead responsibilities
• Contracting and the project timeline
• Lesson summary

- Module A Assessment (ATutor)

Module B - Concept of Operations (64 pages)

Lesson 1 - Introduction to the Concept of Operations (p 1-23)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Introduction to the concept of operations
• Definition and objectives
• Concept of Operations within system development
• Steps to the concept of operations
• Intended audience
• Assigned responsibilities
• Developing the concept of operations: stakeholder identification
• Definition of project "stakeholders"
• Description of respective role of stakeholders
• Developing the concept of operations: vision development
• Definition of goals/objectives
• Characteristics of the vision
• Exercise: Develop a vision for the XYZ metropolitan area
• Lesson Summary

Lesson 2 - Developing the Concept of Operations (p 1-41)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Elements of the concept of operations: deployment
• Elements of the concept of operations: organizational practices and procedures
• Description of organizational practice and procedure
• Distinction between functions and organizational practices and procedures
• Defining a function and its associated practices and procedures
• Example: practices and procedures for a bus dispatch system
• Exercise : Define organizational practices and procedures for the XYZ metroplitan area
• Importance of practices and procedures
• Elements of the concept of operations: performance
• Definition and examples
• Elements of the concept of operations: utilization environment
• Elements of the concept of operations: effectiveness requirements
• Criteria of effectiveness
• Elements of the concept of operations: life cycle
• Elements of the concept of operations: physical environment
• National ITS Architecture User Services
• Description of user services and user service bundles
• User services and the concept of operations
• Importance of the concept of operations
• Documenting the concept of operations
  • IEEE outline for the concept of operations
• The concept of operations and the project timeline
• The operational concept
  • Federal Rule 940
  • Level of detail
  • Inputs to and contents of the operational concept
• Lesson summary

- Module B Assessment (ATutor)

Module C - Requirements and Design (85 pages)

Lesson 1 - Requirements Engineering (p 1-46)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Introduction to requirements engineering
• The five steps of requirements engineering
• Definition of requirement
• Elicitation of requirements
• Definition/discovery of requirements
• Documentation of requirements
• Verification and validation of requirements
• Two aspects of requirements engineering
• Requirements management
• Requirement baselines
• Types of requirement
• End-product requirements
• Enabling requirements
• Examples of requirements
• Characteristics of requirements
• Requirement levels
• Functional requirement hierarchy
• Writing style for requirements
• Characteristics of well-written requirement
• Characteristics of poorly-written detailed requirements
• Exercise : Develop requirements for the XYZ metropolitan area
• Requirement walkthroughs
• Definition of "walkthrough"
• Timeline and participants
• Substance of walkthroughs
• Role of National ITS Architecture
• User Services and User Service Bundles
• User Service requirements
• Requirements traceability
• Traceability matrix
• Relationship of traceability to project development steps
• Traceability example
• Numbering
• Traceability principles
• Requirement changes
• Documenting the requirements
• Lesson summary

Lesson 2 - System Design Practices (p 1-39)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Introduction to system design
• Definition of system design
• Characteristics of high-level and detailed design
• The system design process
• Assigned responsibilities for and performance of design activities
• Steps of the design process
• Good design practices
• Design alternatives
• Generating alternatives
• Three types of alternatives ("do-nothing", off-the-shelf, and custom-design alternatives)
• Example: Developing alternatives for the "XYZ" metropolitan area
• Distinguishing between centralized and distributed control architectures
• Example: centralized and decentralized architectures for the "XYZ" metropolitan area
• Assessing alternatives
• Design considerations
• Using "off-the-shelf" software
• Selecting the developer
• The "Ilities"
• Operating conditions
• Standards
• Developing pecifications
• Differentiating between requirements and design specifications
• Rules for developing specifications
• Functional and non-functional specifications
• High-level specifications
• Design documentation
• System design and the project timeline
• Lesson summary

- Module C Assessment (ATutor)

Module D - Crosscutting Activities (103 pages)

Lesson 1 - Risk Management (pp 1-29)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Description of representative types of project risks
• Common types of risks
• Sources of risk
• Overview of the top-10 generic risks
• Assigned responsibilities for risk management process
• Elements of risk management: the risk assessment process
• Considerations
• Qualitative identification and prioritization
• Exercise: Create a risk assessment matrix for the XYZ metropolitan area
• Quantitative assessment
• Elements of risk management: the risk control process
• Risk planning
• Risk monitoring
• Risk resolution
• Exercise: How would you avoid these risks?
• Documentating the risk mitigation strategy
• Risk management and the project timeline
• Lesson summary

Lesson 2 - Configuration Management (p 1-42)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Introduction to configuration management
• Configuration management within the system development context
• Lead responsibilities
• Goals, necessity and functions of configuration management
• Example: signal systems
• Configuration management activities
• Configuration item identification
• Establishing the baseline
• Identifying hardware, software, documentation and interconnections
• Status accounting
• Audits
• Change control
• Configuration Control Board
• Causes of change requests
• Controlling for the impact of changes
• Tools of Configuration Management
• Traceability and the traceability matrix
• Specification trees
• Configuration management and the project timeline
• Lesson summary

  Lesson 3 - Validation, Verification and Quality Assurance (pp 1-32)

Lesson contents provide the following information:

• Introduction to validation, verification and quality assurance
• Definition
• Assignment of responsibilities
• Validation, verification and Q/A activities within development process
• Validation
• Stakeholder input
• Example: response to bus breakdown
• Verification
• Types of verification
• Example: updating user passwords
• Components of verification
• Quality Assurance
  • Example: bus location
• Verification: the review process
• Verification: the testing process
  • Unit testing
  • Factory (development) testing
  • Pre-staging and acceptance tests
  • Types of acceptance tests
  • Testing and the traceability matrix
  • Testing guidelines
• Verification and validation and the project timeline
• Lesson summary

- Module D Assessment

Course Syllabus

>See Course Syllabus