TABLE OF CONTENTS For the initial development work, the author chose the term system definition over many others that the reader may prefer such as mission analysis or concept development. It is intended to generally cover the front end work on a program that moves the customer and contractor from a condition of relative ignorance about the need toward a clearly defined set of system requirements and a preferred system concept supportive of those requirements. It begins with the customer need statement and terminates with the system design review (SDR). Structured analysis techniques, as covered in this part, are valuable tools for uncovering the right questions to ask about the problem space proscribed by the customer's need statement but to be most effective they must be accomplished within a context richer than a simple user-oriented need statement.
In a large customer procurement situation, this process may be accomplished by the user, an acquisition agent for the user, a contractor working under a study contract, or some combination of these possibilities. The period of time may be fairly brief or it may stretch over a period of several years implemented through multiple study contracts involving trade studies, technology development, and even a competitive development and testing of alternative systems as in the case of the DoD F-22 or JFX Programs, for example.
In a commercial situation the term system development may be considered an overstatement but a similar process must be accomplished that results in the enterprise uncovering a...
