Systems Engineering Management Plan 
Section 3.7 - Model Text

3.7 Decision and control process.

Technical, budgetary, and scheduling problems shall be diagnosed as early as possible to determine their impact.

Problems and solution alternatives shall be studied to derive the overall impact upon the technical program to insure that the alternatives are assessed with regard to consideration of side effects that may be induced by the solution.

A contract freezes a 'Design Requirements baseline' this baseline shall be comprised of the applicable documents issued prior to or on the contract date.
New requirements incorporated into the 'Design Requirements baseline' will not be applicable unless included with an authorized formal contract amendment. If the contracted supplier considers that the cost will be affected he must write immediately to the controlling contracts office. Problem solutions involving changes to the contractual requirements (Design Requirements/Components Baseline) or established configuration identification baselines (Functional, Allocated or Product) shall be processed in accordance with the 'Configuration Management Plan' (CMP).

The authority required to make a decision on changes varies with the magnitude and nature of the change concerned and involves one of several levels within the organization of the parties (Customer and Industry) to the project. This decision making process is an integral part of the overall project management of the Systems Engineering Programme.

To enable the process to operate correctly it is necessary to establish specific procedures for dealing with changes, having the purpose of:

• providing the relevant information for best decisions on change to be made;
• implementing decisions;
• reviewing and implementing changes in accordance with the established rules.

and involving the use of formally constituted Design and Control Boards / Working Groups / Review Boards at the participating companies, and supplier meetings.

Organization and information flow charts shall be provided.

NOTE: Configuration Management is not to be regarded as a Systems Engineering Management activity this shall be defined in the CMP. The CCBs terms of reference defined in DEF STAN 05-123/1 however will met by this requirement.

Figure 2 illustrates the Decision and Control Review Board hierarchy.

Additional internal company specific progress meetings shall address the individual issues involving time and cost at the partner companies and suppliers.

Further details of the decision and control boards will be added here.

• 3.7.1 Decision and control boards.
  • The following "Decision and control boards" shall perform the technical and progress reviews to address the above requirements.
    1. Acquirer (purchaser) review board;
    2. Technical agency review board;
    3. System design review board;
    4. CSCI/HWCI Design Review boards.
• 3.7.1.1 Acquirer review board.
• Tasks and responsibilities.
  1. recommend the "Initial Build Standards" (Component and Design);
  2. Approve common class I changes including any trial installations;
  3. Approve requests for Change Proposals and studies;
  4. Ensure that all Class I and Class II changes are recorded.
  • Participants.
  • 3.7.1.2 Technical agency review board (if applicable).
  • Tasks and responsibilities.
    1. authorize the Functional baseline;
    2. authorize the Production baseline;
    3. to agree/recommend the design requirements baseline and design component baseline;
    4. to authorize the baseline build standard(s);
    5. to monitor/review program/project status;
    6. to prepare reports for the 'Acquirer review board'.
  • Participants.
  • 3.7.1.3 System/subsystem review board.
  • to agree and recommend the Allocated baseline(s) for HWCIs and CSCIs;
  • to authorize Class I changes to HWCIs and CSCIs;
  • to authorize HWCI and CSCI Product baselines;
  • to co-chair the following formal technical reviews:
    1. System Requirements Review;
    2. System Design Review;
    3. Software Requirements Review;
    4. Preliminary Design Review;
    5. Critical Design Review;
    6. Test Readiness Review;
    7. Formal Qualification Review;
    8. Production Readiness Review.
  • monitor and review HWCI and CSCI change status.
  • Participants.
  • 3.7.1.4 HWCI/CSCI design review board(s).
  • For each CSCI and HWCI a design team shall establish a Design Review board.
    Responsibilities;
    • detailed CSCI and HWCI design tasks;
    • classification of problems and changes to CI documents forming the FB, ABs, or PBs;
    • Participants.
• 3.7.2 Modification procedure.
  • Modifications are only applicable after designs have been accepted by the acquirer and a production baseline build standard (PBBS) has been formally accepted (under ministry control). Changes from this baseline shall be in accordance with the 'Configuration Management Plan'.
• 3.7.3 Interface control.
  • Interface control procedures shall consist of establishing and maintaining agreements among the various departments, organizations responsible for interfacing system elements. These shall be documented as 'System Interface Control Drawing Documentation (ICD).
    An interface change dictates that the source and destination are affected.
    An interface shall be 'defined' when the functional and physical characteristics are appropriately specified (or referenced) in the System/subsystem specification.
    When required interface control will use a Interface Control Working Group.

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