Systems Engineering for TrainControl and Communications:

People, Process and Product

University of Birmingham, 14th April 2016

What is Systems Engineering?

SE according to INCOSE

The International Council on SE (INCOSE) defines SE as follows:

“an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the

realization of successful systems

“It focuses on defining customer needs and required

functionality early in the development cycle, documenting

requirements, then proceeding with design synthesis and

system validation while considering the complete problem”

SE according to INCOSE

The International Council on SE (INCOSE) defines SE as follows:

“an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the

realization of successful systems

“It focuses on defining customer needs and required

functionality early in the development cycle, documenting

requirements, then proceeding with design synthesis and

system validation while considering the complete problem”

SE is a well-established discipline

1950 20161956

SE training Underway

at Bell Labs

1969

MIL-STD-499"SE Management"

issued

1989

NCOSEformed (later to becomeINCOSE)

2003

LU Standard E1030 (now 1-209) issued

2002

ISO/IEC15288 issued

SE helps to forestall systems problems

A system is any

combination of assets,

equipment, people,

procedures, software

and data designed to

work together for a

common purpose

A railway is a system

• Made up of many

smaller systems

SE focusses on requirements and interfaces

Requirements

StationTrack

Railway

Train … and many other things

Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements

Inte

rfac

es

Interfaces

Myths and realities about SE

Myth: SE is about

connecting up

computers

Reality: SE may

be thought of as

“the business of

getting the parts

of the railway to

work together to

do what we want

them to”

Myths and realities about SE

Myth: SE is a well-

defined discipline

Reality: There are

different views

on precisely what

SE is, which is

distracting and

inconvenient, but

there is enough

agreement to

work with

Myths and realities about SE

Myth: SE is just

common sense

Reality: SE

provides proven

and well-grounded

methods and to

put some common

sense ideas into

practice and a

framework within

which to apply

them

Myths and realities about SE

Myth: SE is

something

completely new

to rail

Myth : Rail

projects have

always done SE

Reality: SE

overlaps existing

rail engineering

practice but goes

beyond it

Myths and realities about SE

Myth: You can

import

conventional SE

into rail

unchanged

Myth : Railway SE

is something apart

Reality: Railway

projects should be

prepared to adapt

conventional SE

approaches but

only where there is

good reason to

deviate from

established,

proven methods

A standard framework for SE 1

Scope of ISO/IEC 15288

Project Management

Good engineering practice

Mechanical engineering

Electrical engineering

SE

A standard framework for SE 2

Technical Processes

Stakeholder Needs and Requirements Definition

System Requirements Analysis

Architectural Definition

Implementation

Integration

Verification

Transition

Validation

Operation

Maintenance

Disposal

Technical Management Processes

Project Planning

Project Assessment and Control

Measurement

Risk Management

Configuration Management

Decision Management

Information Management

QA

Business or Mission Analysis

The ‘V’ lifecycle

Sys Req A

nal

Arch D

efn.

Imp

lemen

tation

Inte

grat

ion

Ver

ific

atio

n

Tra

nsi

tion

Val

idat

ion

Operation

Maintenance

Verification

Disposal

Stakehold

er

Need

s and

Reqs

Defn

Bu

siness or

Mission

An

al.

The ‘Rule of Ten’

Time

£ to fixfault

‘Left-shift’

Time

Rate of Expenditure Traditional

‘Left shift’

Concluding remarks

17

SE offers a reservoir of good practice that has been

proven in other sectors to address issues which can be

problematic for railway projects, including:

› getting the requirements right

› managing interfaces

› avoiding disappointment with the performance of the

finished project t

The railway industry is accumulating an increasing

amount of experience in adapting this practice and

applying it successfully

SE offers effective and applicable weapons in the

struggle to deliver high-quality railway systems at

reasonable cost

Questions

18

Bruce Elliott

Altran UK Limited

22 St Lawrence Street

SouthGate

BATH BA1 1AN

Tel: +44 1225 466991

Fax: +44 1225 469006

Website: www.altran.com

Email: bruce.elliott@altran.com

© Altran 2016

This presentation includes material previously

published in a Railway Gazette article, “Seven

myths of Railway Engineering” written by Bruce

Elliott, Felix Schmid, Clive Roberts and Ian

Shannon and in a training course prepared by

Arbutus Technical Consulting. This material is

re-used with the permission of the copyright

holders.