Houston-Galveston Area Council Transportation Systems Management & Operations Clearinghouse
Houston-Galveston Area Council Transportation Systems Management & Operations Clearinghouse
The SEA requirements in FHWA Rule 940.11 and the FTA Policy Section VI allow the SEA effort to be customized so that it is on a scale commensurate with project scope.
What does commensurate with project scope mean?
How much Systems Engineering do I have to do commensurate with project scope?
Many ITS projects are small (either in scope or cost), not complex, or do not involve much risk because they are projects done frequently (traffic signal system or CCTV subsystem upgrades, for example). Some projects have more risk, either because of their sheer size in cost or a multi-jurisdictional element.
Examples of projects that may be classified as “exempt” include signal timing projects, studies, new isolated signals, and maintenance projects. No systems engineering is typically required for these types of projects and they are procured using the traditional construction process.
Low risk projects may have less Systems Engineering effort associated with them. Low risk projects may reuse existing documentation and the number of formal plans and design plan sets may be reduced to fit the budgets. Standard specs may be available and little or no special engineering is required. Some of the characteristics of low-risk projects include:
High risk projects will require more Systems Engineering Analysis. New systems, larger systems costing more money, and those with involvement of multiple agencies are likely all considered high risk projects subject to more stringent SEA requirements. The characteristics of higher risk projects include:
“Very high risk” projects have characteristics similar to “high risk” projects, but they have much more uncertainty about cost, schedule and execution during the initial concept stages of the project. They typically have more than one agency involved, with out-of-the-ordinary integration requirements, technology procurement, and/or software development. For very high risk projects an evolutionary development strategy, or a multi-stage deployment, may be best.
Applying systems engineering to ITS projects can approach 10 to 20 percent of the project cost. For smaller transportation agencies and/or ITS projects, this is usually prohibitive and discourages the use of system engineering (SE) process. Local agencies should anticipate this cost in planning for the project. Detailed SE does not begin until the project is on the TIP and funded, only the preliminary assessments need to be made. HGAC and other local agencies can be used as resources to help an affected agency determine what level of systems engineering is appropriate (and required) for certain ITS projects. The use of systems engineering can actually help reduce the cost of a project. The figure below shows the results of an International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE) study on cost performance based on percentage of project cost as systems engineering. The study indicated an average 50% overrun on projects without systems engineering, with a definite trend of better cost performance with systems engineering.
