6.1 The importance of process

Much of industry is beginning to recognize the importance of standardized and defined organization (Company wide) and functional (departmental and divisional) processes that support consistent high quality systems, applications and methods for doing business. These processes allow a Company to stay within budget and operate on a cost-effective schedule. However, good standardized processes must be engineered to accommodate and emulate unique high quality project and program characteristics. This requires a systematic approach to developing and delivering processes that combine the advantages of standardization with the flexibility that addresses a product s unique requirements. A good start for a Company is recognizing and supporting processes by adopting an ISO 9000 standard and system and to support a systems engineering organization that epitomises a capability maturity model (CMM) in its own operations and practices.

When faced with the difficult problem of defining the processes used for a large, complex and highly variable organization, many implementing process groups are faced with a real dilemma. That dilemma is to find the correct solution in structure and discipline, to include a careful analysis of the process problems, and design an appropriate architectural framework in which the conditions and problems can be decomposed into smaller more manageable pieces. Process engineering, a system used by many systems engineering organizations, is a solution that follows a carefully structured approach involving a level of detail resulting in...