Presentation Systems Engineering Test & Evaluation Conference 2024

Cost-Effective Systems Engineering: Exploration of tools for Systems Engineers on a budget. (21241)

Parth Thakur 1
  1. Ediom, Melbourne, VICTORIA, Australia

Overview

This paper explores the feasibility of using cost-effective tools like DevOps and Jira for systems engineering tasks traditionally done on expensive tools such as DOORS or Relatics.

This presentation would be of interest to people/businesses that work on small-medium size projects looking for a cost-efficient way to manage system lifecycle.

Context

Life cycle model approach is a Systems engineering framework that can help successful realisation of a system. Tools like DOORS and Relatics help engineers develop a system using the life cycle (V) model approach. However, the costliness of tools can pose as a potential barrier to effective systems engineering practices. In contrast, DevOps and Jira, tools widely used in the software development and IT industries, offer cost-effective alternatives with features comparable to DOORS or Relatics for certain situations.

We know that DOORS and Relatics is not cost-effective for small-medium projects. 

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight on how inexpensive tools can provide a viable alternative and prevent cost from being a barrier to preforming good systems engineering practices. The paper will provide potential processes, templates and use cases that can be used to maximise the benefit of the cost-effective tools.

We are trying to show that tools like DevOps and Jira can help make systems engineering more prominent by removing the cost barrier as well as how to best use these tools. 

Approach

The paper will simulate a project and showcase how the v-model approach can be achieved using one of the cost-effective tools.

The presentation will go through a project life cycle and show how to best use the cost-effective tool.

Insights

This paper aims to inform readers that there are alternative options available to DOORS and Relatics that may be more cost-effective, that are not Excel and Word.