Alternatives Analysis - Applying Systems Engineering - Lecture Slides, Slides of Systems Engineering

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Alternatives Analysis

Objectives

• Extension of Trade Study Module

• Learn how to develop System-level Alternatives

• Apply the generic Tradeoff Study Methodology to

select Preferred System Solution(s)

– Note: I posted a 2.3 MB file which is a 540 page DOE

document on Project Management Practices; Project

Management includes SE. Good sections on

Alternatives Analysis and on Risk

Key Terminology

• Point Solution

• Preferred System Solution

• System Alternatives

Complete Trades Documentation and Subject to CM

Identify System Decisions

Develop Decision Criteria based on Req’ts

Develop Suitable Alternatives

Weight Decision Criteria

Score Alternatives

Compute Total Weighted Scores and Rankings Eliminate (Capture in Documentation) Insensitive Criteria Perform Sensitivity Analysis

Perform Adverse Consequences Analysis

Eliminate Unsuitable Alternatives

Perform Killer Trades

Develop Trade Tree of System 2 Decisions^1

3

4

(^65)

7

8

9

11

10

9a

10a

Apply Tradeoff Study

Approach

• Apply the Tradeoff Study

approach at the “system” level

• Modify Step 2 to “revisit”

functional Trade Trees and

bound the system decision

space. Consider such things as:

• Low Cost
• Low Risk
• Low Environmental Impact
• High Public Acceptance
• Objective: Identify suitable

“system” alternative(s)

Characteristics of Good Alternatives

• Independent, Distinctive Alternatives
• Applicable to identified System Technical

Requirements

• Plausible Solutions

Elegant solutions to the wrong problem

are worse than useless !!

Typical Results of a System

Alternative Analysis

• Qualitative Results

Significant Somewhat Neutral Somewhat Significant

Negative Impact Positive Impact

Stakeholder Acceptance

Cost to Implement

Cost Savings (life cycle)

Operational Efficiency

Speed to Implement

Baseline Alt. 1 Alt. 2 Alt. 3 Alt. 4

Administrative Feasibility

Safety Improvement

Technical Feasibility

Complex-wide Consistency

Breadth of Inventory Coverage

Schedule Improvement

Discuss the pros and cons of

this type of presentation

Select Preferred Solution(s)

• Select the “preferred solution(s)” based on both

qualitative and quantitative data

• What happens if the preferred solution is NOT

the answer the customer wanted?

– You may have missed some requirements

– You may need to change some criteria or weighting

– You may need to educate the customer

• Update baselines, as necessary