SYSTEM PROCUREMENT:
The initial phase of systems engineering is system procurement (sometimes called system acquisition). At this stage, decisions are made on the scope of a system that is to be purchased, system budgets and timescales, and the high-level system requirements. Using this information, further decisions are then made on whether to procure a system, the type of system required, and the supplier or suppliers of the system.
The drivers for these decisions are:
1. The state of other organizational systems: If the organization has a mixture of systems that cannot easily communicate or that are expensive to maintain, then procuring a replacement system may lead to significant business benefits.
2. The need to comply with external regulations: Increasingly, businesses are regulated and have to demonstrate compliance with externally defined regulations. This may require the replacement of noncompliant systems or the provision of new systems specifically to monitor compliance.
3. External competition: If a business needs to compete more effectively or maintain a competitive position, investment in new systems that improve the efficiency of business processes may be advisable. For military systems, the need to improve capability in the face of new threats is an important reason for procuring new systems.
4. Business reorganization: Businesses and other organizations frequently restructure with the intention of improving efficiency and/or customer service. Reorganizations lead to changes in business processes that require new systems support.
5. Available budget: The budget available is an obvious factor in determining the scope of new systems that can be procured.
Figure shows a simplified model of the procurement process for both COTS system components and system components that have to be specially designed and developed. Important points about the process shown in this diagram are:
1. Off-the-shelf components do not usually match requirements exactly, unless the requirements have been written with these components in mind. Therefore, choosing a system means, you have to find the closest match between the system requirements and the facilities offered by off-the-shelf systems. You may then have to modify the requirements. This can have knock-on effects on other subsystems.
2. When a system is to be built specially, the specification of requirements is part of the contract for the system being acquired. It is therefore a legal as well as a technical document.
3. After a contractor has been selected, to build a system, there is a contract negotiation period where you may have to negotiate further changes to the requirements and discuss issues such as the cost of changes to the system. Similarly, once a COTS system has been selected, you may negotiate with the supplier on costs, licence conditions, possible changes to the system, etc.
