Reducing Acquisition Cost by Minimizing the Requirements Solution Space

Authors

  • Bradford A. Logan The George Washington University

Keywords:

Requirements, Degree of Freedom, Complex Systems, System Boundary, Feasible Solution Space

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the need to develop a methodology for reducing acquisition costs by minimizing the requirements’ solution space. The requirements solution space is the result of two or more solutions, resulting from the interpretation of system’s requirement. This can be problematic if solution spaces created by the requirements do not: 1) fall within the systems’ prescribed solution space, 2) or if the solution spaces from other neighbouring system requirements oppose one another. If either of these situations is realized, there will likely be negative consequences relating to costs, schedule and quality.

The author briefly explores critical requirements and the relations to their respective constraints. In doing so, the concept of assigning a degree of freedom (DoF) nomenclature to these critical requirements is introduced, which helps relates the DoF to complexity. This nomenclature will prove instrumental in providing the initial assessment to the number of potential solutions existing per system requirement. The paper will also establish a relation between the requirements DoF, complexity and cost.

Author Biography

Bradford A. Logan, The George Washington University

Bradford Logan is a doctoral student at the George Washington University and will earn his PhD in Systems Engineering. Prior to pursuing his studies, Bradford spent over six years in the military, and over seven years as a civilian engineer working on Army, Navy and Joint programs. He received his Masters’ from Old Dominion University in Mechanical Engineering and Systems Engineering, and both Bachelors’ degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry from Old Dominion University. He is a registered Project Management Professional and Certified System Engineering Professional- Acquisition.

Published

2015-01-25

How to Cite

Logan, B. A. (2015). Reducing Acquisition Cost by Minimizing the Requirements Solution Space. Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the ISSS - 2014 United States, 1(1). Retrieved from https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings58th/article/view/2369

Issue

Proceedings of the 58th Meeting of ISSS, Washington DC, USA, July 2014

Section

Systems Engineering