The most common ITS-related definition of Systems Engineering is "an interdisciplinary approach for systems development that is used in many different industries because it contributes to project success", where project success is measured by:

1. The cost and timeliness in delivery of the project, and
2. How deployed system satisfies the needs of the people who use it.

Systems engineering offers the opportunity to address the entire life of a project, reduce the risk of schedule and cost overruns and increase the likelihood that the system will meet the user's needs. It does this by:

• Promoting an analysis of needs and expectations and what and how a system will do something.
• Reducing the risk of cost and schedule overrun.
• Involving a broad stakeholder participation.
• Improving documentation making upgrades and expansion easier.
• Making consistency with the regional ITS architecture easier.
• Providing more flexibility in procurement, minimizing proprietary development and encouraging the use of industry and regionally accepted standards, encouraging a plug-and-play type of deployment.
• Delaying technology decisions until the last possible moment, ensuring obsolescence is avoided.

This approach has been used in capital project development (e.g., roadway/highway jobs) for many years. Engineers would not think of doing a roadway design without using standards and “approved” specifications and methods. It is just for ITS, we are in the early stages of determining what the standards are and what the specifications and methods should be.