It has become fashionable to blame Systems Engineering and the requirements development and management sub-function as the cause of aerospace program cost overruns and schedule expansions. Risk aversion and a lack of focus on outcomes are the true enemy of delivering capability.

Our experience over many decades at Celeris Systems is that requirements are not the enemy, but requirements are also not the product. However, they are guides and act as common touchpoints for multiple groups who are developing and integrating layers of complicated technology. But too much focus on the guardrails allows money to be siphoned away from the integration and test programs where the product/system is built and assessed. It really is a return to engineering first principles.

At Celeris, we believe that event-based verification drives a focus on “how do you want to use the system”. We have repeatedly seen that over 50% of the necessary requirements come from that vision, are generated quickly, and are more streamlined toward what it truly required of the system. This rapid progression to most of the significant requirements breaks the fear cycle of “we spent a lot of money on requirements, so we only have enough money for one test article; so we need more analysis because we can’t risk the test article.” Requirements management and system analysis feel “safe” without the commitment to buy material and start building. The doom loop is repeated across many programs because of a desire for the non-existent “zero risk path”.