Systems engineering mitigates the risk of technology-based projects not meeting the needs of their users. Therefore, agencies should use systems engineering approaches when projects demonstrate risk, and the detail applied to the SE process should be commensurate with that risk. State departments of transportation develop procedures in consultation with their FHWA Division office primarily aimed at assessing risk as the basis for determining how much systems engineering the agency should undertake. Agencies should determine and follow these procedures.
Section 2.8 describes the Federal systems engineering requirements for an ITS project. Section 4.5 provides a general discussion of the processes used by some state DOTs for determining the level of required systems engineering.
Even in low-risk projects, however, agencies should address all the elements of a complete systems engineering process, including user needs and requirements in advance of design, procurement, and implementation, followed by verification and validation steps to demonstration that requirements have been fulfilled and needs have been satisfied. Lower-risk projects, however, may use needs and requirements that have already been documented as part of some prior process, and need less detail in each of these steps. Higher-risk projects may need addition systems engineering activities to fully document needs and requirements in sufficient detail to mitigate identified risks. And the highest-risk projects may need to be conducted in phases to minimize investment until the most serious risks have been addressed.
