ISO 18676:2024
(Main)Space systems — Requirements and guidelines for the management of systems engineering
Space systems — Requirements and guidelines for the management of systems engineering
This document presents the requirements and recommendations for the management of systems engineering for space systems. This document addresses the systems engineering activities and provides guidelines for interfacing with specific major management subjects (e.g. configuration management, data management, interface management, risk management, requirements management, and integrated logistics support). This document establishes a common reference for all customers and suppliers in the space sector to work with management of systems engineering for all space products and projects. This document does not describe in detail the standard systems engineering process or project management process for all types of space systems.
Systèmes spatiaux — Exigences et lignes directrices pour le management de l'ingénierie système
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Standards Content (Sample)
International
Standard
ISO 18676
Second edition
Space systems — Requirements and
2024-07
guidelines for the management of
systems engineering
Systèmes spatiaux — Exigences et lignes directrices pour le
management de l'ingénierie système
Reference number
© ISO 2024
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ii
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Positioning of systems engineering management . 3
4.1 General .3
4.2 Need for systems engineering management .3
4.3 Systems engineering .3
4.4 Systems engineering management .4
4.5 Systems engineering management relative to the mission/programme/project .4
5 Management of the systems engineering activities . 5
5.1 General .5
5.2 Planning .5
5.3 Assessment .6
5.4 Trade-offs and decision-making .6
5.5 Control .6
6 Systems engineering management plan (SEMP) . 7
7 Systems engineering management activities . 7
7.1 Management of stakeholder requirements analysis .7
7.2 Management of system requirements analysis .7
7.3 Management of architectural design .8
7.4 Management of detailed design .8
7.5 Management of assembly, integration and verification .8
7.6 Management of validation .8
8 Work breakdown structures (WBS) . 9
9 Phasing, scheduling and recursivity . 10
10 Budgeting and resource planning .10
11 Status reporting and assessment .10
11.1 General .10
11.2 Cost assessments .10
11.3 Scheduling assessments .11
11.4 Performance assessments .11
11.5 Risk assessments .11
12 Reviews, audits and control gates .12
12.1 General . 12
12.2 Review . 12
12.3 Review list . 13
12.4 Audits .14
12.5 Control gates.14
13 Interfaces management with SE . 14
13.1 General .14
13.2 Acquisition and supply interface management . 15
13.3 Implementation interface management . 15
Bibliography .16
iii
Foreword
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of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the
ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 20, Aircraft and space vehicles, Subcommittee
SC 14, Space systems and operations.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 18676:2017), which has been technically
revised.
The main changes are as follows:
— updated the normative references in Clause 2;
— updated the terms and definitions references in Clause 3.
— changed some recommendations to requirements in Clauses 5 to 13.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.
iv
Introduction
There is general consensus that to accomplish space programme/project requirements, it is mandatory
to manage the systems engineering activities. The main role of systems engineering management is to
ensure system performance conforms with expressed need and to control the technical risks involved in
development. Also, cost and schedule parameters are taken into account in space systems engineering in the
search of optimal performance.
Thus, this document provides requirements and recommendations for managing the systems engineering
activities related to planning, assessment and control of space programmes/projects.
These requirements and recommendations are intended to help customers and space system organizations
to establish management requirements for systems engineering activities and help the organization to
construct the elements of the systems engineering management plan (SEMP).
Given the need for systems engineering management, the overall systems engineering activities can be
divided into two types:
— systems engineering management activities related to programme management which comprise
planning, assessing, controlling, trade-off studies and decision-making;
— technical activities linked to the technical processes (stakeholder requirements analysis, system
requirements analysis, system architectural design, system detailed design and assembly, integration,
and verification and validation) applied to the system.
Therefore, systems engineering management reinforces the technical viewpoint within programme
management.
In this document, a set of leading indicators are suggested as measures for evaluating the effectiveness of each
space systems engineering activity. Leading indicators are important tools for project management to make
interventions and actions to avoid rework and wasted effort during the whole system engineering life cycle.
This document emphasizes the following aspects of managing space systems engineering:
— the positioning of space systems engineering activities related to the management of space activities;
— the framework for the management of systems engineering;
— the systems engineering management plan (SEMP);
— the system, product and work breakdown structures;
— the phasing, scheduling and recursivity of the systems engineering management;
— reviews, audits and control gates;
— the main activities of systems engineering and the respective management approach.
v
International Standard ISO 18676:2024(en)
Space systems — Requirements and guidelines for the
management of systems engineering
1 Scope
This document presents the requirements and recommendations for the management of systems engineering
for space systems.
This document addresses the systems engineering activities and provides guidelines for interfacing
with specific major management subjects (e.g. configuration management, data management, interface
management, risk management, requirements management, and integrated logistics support).
This document establishes a common reference for all customers and suppliers in the space sector to work
with management of systems engineering for all space products and projects.
This document does not describe in detail the standard systems engineering process or project management
process for all types of space systems.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references,
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 10795, Space systems — Programme management and quality — Vocabulary
ISO 14300-1, Space systems — Programme management — Part 1: Structuring of a project
ISO 27026, Space systems — Programme management — Breakdown of project management structures
ISO 21886, Space systems — Configuration management
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 10795 and the following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
management
coordinated activities to direct and control an organization (3.2)
Note 1 to entry: Management can include establishing policies and objectives, and processes (3.3) to achieve these
objectives.
Note 2 to entry: The word “management” sometimes refers to people, i.e. a person or group of people with authority
and responsibility for the conduct and control of an organization. When “management” is used in this sense, it should
always be used with some form of qualifier to avoid confusion with the concept of “management” as a set of activities
defined above. For example, “management shall…” is deprecated whereas “top management shall…” is acceptable.
Otherwise, different words should be adopted to convey the concept when related to people, e.g. managerial or
managers.
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.3.3]
3.2
organization
person or group of people that has its own functions with responsibilities, authorities and relationships to
achieve its objectives
Note 1 to entry: The concept of organization includes, but is not limited to, sole-trader, company, corporation, firm,
enterprise, authority, partnership, association, charity or institution, or part or combination thereof, whether
incorporated or not, public or private.
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.2.1, modified — Note 2 to entry has been removed.]
3.3
process
set of interrelated or interacting activities that use inputs to deliver an intended result
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.4.1, modified — Notes to entry have been removed.]
3.4
programme
group of projects (3.5) managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them
individually
[SOURCE: ISO 14300-1:2023, 3.2]
3.5
project
unique process (3.3), consisting of a set of coordinated and controlled activities with start and finish dates,
undertaken to achieve an objective conforming to specific requirements, including the constraints of time,
cost and resources
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.4.2, modified — Notes to entry have been removed.]
3.6
system
set of interdependent elements constituted to achieve a given objective by performing a specified function
[SOURCE: ISO 16091:2018, 3.1.23, modified — Note 1 to entry has been removed.]
3.7
systems engineering
interdisciplinary approach governing the total technical and managerial effort required to transform a set of
stakeholder (3.9) needs, expectations and constraints into a solution and to support that solution throughout
its life
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-1:2018, 3.57]
3.8
systems engineering management
discipline to ensure that system engineering (3.7) is properly applied and can be divided in planning, control,
assessment and decision analysis, including management (3.1) tools like work breakdown structures, risk
management, requirements traceability and reviews
3.9
stakeholder
customer, user, person who will receive the goods or services and is the direct beneficiary of the system
(3.6). or other interested party who affects or is affected by the project (3.5)
Note 1 to entry: The stakeholders provide overarching constraints within which the customers' needs should be
achieved
[SOURCE: ISO 16404:2020, 3.10, modified — "beneficiaries of the systems" has been replaced by " beneficiary
of the system"; "providing overarching constraints within which the customers' needs should be achieved"
at the end of the definition has been removed; note 1 to entry has been added.]
4 Positioning of systems engineering management
4.1 General
This clause justifies the space systems engineering management activity in relation to:
— the management of design and manufacturing engineering activities;
— project management;
— the mission/programme/project.
4.2 Need for systems engineering management
Systems engineering management is necessary due to the following reasons:
a) new requirements that keep coming up in the systems engineering process;
b) complexity of the elements in the environment, material, information and energy, that exchange with
the system;
c) quantity and variety of stakeholders, requirements, concepts, functionalities, technologies, suppliers,
contracts and life cycle process implementation organizations;
d) iterative nature of the systems engineering process from requirements till the convergence to a system
solution;
e) recursive nature of the systems engineering process applicable to systems but also to subsystems in the
various layers of the system breakdown structure;
f) risk management when verification activities cannot be exhaustive.
4.3 Systems engineering
Systems engineering provides the identification and understanding of a need; it derives, develops and verifies
a solution that will fit with the needs/requirements during the space system life cycle in order to meet that
need. Systems engineering balances the satisfaction of all stakeholders involved in the solution life. Figure 1
presents the V model and its set of systems engineering processes in the classical life cycle stages.
The term "systems engineering process" describes the activities used to transform requirements into
an effective product. These activities enable systems engineers to coordinate the interaction between
engineers, other specialists, stakeholders, operators and manufacturers.
As defined in ISO 14300-1, the classical life cycle of space systems is divided into stages; and each stage
contains systems engineering processes. The concept stage includes the concept of the operations process;
the development stage includes the requirements and architecture analysis processes and the detailed
design process; the production stage includes the synthesis process, the assembly, integration and
verification process, and the system validation process; and the utilization stage includes the operations and
maintenance processes.
Figure 1 — Systems engineering V model
Systems engineering focuses on the delivery of a technical solution that meets stakeholder needs and
provides a set of baseline requirements to be used as references for project management.
These references are used in project management to compare what is being implemented with what has
been planned.
Project management covers the project organization and other aspects of the project, such as cost, schedules,
human resources, communication, programmatic risk, acquisition strategy, sustainment and external
interfaces.
4.4 Systems engineering management
The systems engineering process is managed from the time of need identification to the delivery of a
verified and validated solution. Also, systems engineering management includes configuration management,
which shall be in accordance with ISO 21886, data management, technical risk management, and interface
management.
4.5 Systems engineering management relative to the mission/programme/project
Systems engineering management is part of the mission/programme/project and interacts with other
management disciplines within the mission/programme/project activities.
Figure 2 presents the position of programme management related to systems engineering activities.
The programme management circle consists of the management tasks including planning, assessment of
progress, control actions and trade-offs and decision making to correct the course of the project. The systems
engineering circle is related to the main activities of systems engineering process, such as stakeholder
requirements analysis, system requirements analysis, system architectural design, system detailed design,
assembly and integration, and verification and validation. The intersection circle corresponds to the
interaction between management tasks and the systems engineering activities required to accomplish the
mission/programme/project.
Figure 2 — Position of programme management related to system engineering activities
5 Management of the systems engineering activities
5.1 General
The objective of the management of systems engineering activities is to achieve the required outputs of
the space system project. This management covers the task planning, assessment, control, trade-offs, and
decision-making applied to assure the correct management of the project in all phases of the systems
engineering process.
5.2 Planning
Planning refers to the identification of the activities to be performed, their appropriate sequence and
resources needed for their accomplishment. This task consists of preparing the necessary technical plans
and complementary project planning information used to support the mission and the systems engineering
activities and shall include the following.
a) implementation strategy: define a strategy for implementing the mission/programme/project and the
systems engineering activities as a basis for project technical planning;
b) technical effort: describe what will be accomplished, how systems engineering will be done, what
resources are needed and how the systems engineering effort will be monitored and controlled in
accordance with the implementation strategy;
c) schedule and organization: define how the technical effort will be scheduled and organized;
d) work directives: create work directives that implement the technical effort.
5.3 Assessment
Assessment refers to the evaluation of the project’s progress along the planned activities of the systems
engineering process. This task consists of determining progress of the technical effort against the mission/
programme/project planning and the systems engineering activities. This assessment shall be used to
determine:
a) definition of the progress and outcome metrics to be used;
b) progress against plans and schedules: assess the progress of the technical effort against the
accomplishments of the systems engineering activities;
c) progress against systems engineering activities: assess the progress of the system development
by comparing mission/programme/project required results against the outcomes of the systems
engineering activities;
d) technical reviews: use technical reviews to evaluate the progress and accomplishments in accordance
with the appropriate technical plans.
Leading indicators (LIs) can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of specific space systems engineering
activities to provide information about impacts that are likely to affect the space programme/project
performance objectives. LIs can be associated with system attributes, such as process milestones, phases,
disposition actions (opened, started, approved, incorporated, rejected, stopped, closed, overdue), maturity
states (planned, interim, actual), priority levels (critical, high, medium, low), causal states (error, customer
request, external), impact levels (high, medium, low), classification type and dates/times.
5.4 Trade-offs and decision-making
Trade-offs and decision-making refers to recommendations and predictions of the results of the
alternative decisions. This task consists of performing trade-off analyses to provide decision-makers with
recommendations, predictions of the results of alternative decisions and other appropriate information to
allow selection of the best course of action. This task shall include:
a) identifying the alternatives;
b) planning the trade-off analysis: plan the availability of required resources, execution and data collection
requirements, expected outcomes, defined conditions (triggers and rigor), level of importance, objective,
schedule of tasks, selection criteria that will determine desirability or undesirability of an alternative,
weighting factors for each selection criterion, models (representative or simulation) to be used in the
trade-off analysis, and options to be analysed;
c) performing the trade-off analysis: carry out appropriate effectiveness analysis activities to provide
a quantitative basis for evaluating options, risk analysis activities to quantitatively or qualitatively
assess the risk associated with each option; collect and analyse data to determine the cost, schedule,
performance and risk effect of each option on the system; evaluate options against selection criteria and
weighting factors and identify and define recommendations and communicate recommendations and
impacts to appropriate decision makers;
d) recording outcomes: record the analysis in the information database, including assumptions, details of
the analysis, lessons learned, models used, rationale for decisions made, recommendations and effects
and other pertinent information affecting the interpretation of the decisions made.
5.5 Control
Control refers to the actions to be taken in order to keep the planned activities according to plan, to correct
the course of activities needed to be brought back in line with the plan or to correct the plan. The control task
is used to manage the conduct and the outcomes of the mission, to monitor variations from the plan, and to
prevent anomalies relative to the systems engineering activities, and to ensure necessary communications
are successful.
This activity shall support:
a) preventive actions: when assessments indicate a trend toward deviation of progress and outcomes;
b) problem resolution: when assessments indicate non-conformance with the outcome metrics, such as,
the performance of systems engineering activities that lead to expected results outside the bounds of
the success criteria;
c) information dissemination: ensure that required and requested information is disseminated in
accordance with the project plans and organization policies.
6 Systems engineering management plan (SEMP)
SEMP is the document that defines for all project participants how the project will be technically managed.
The SEMP identifies what, when, where, by whom and how the activities are performed. It specifies the
schedule for the development and the resources required. It is an implementation plan for the management
of the performance of systems engineering activities and the development of systems engineering products.
The SEMP shall be aligned with the customer’s systems engineering plan (SEP).
An SEMP shall be prepared for each project.
The SEMP shall include:
a) an organization structure along with responsibilities for the systems engineering team;
b) the major trades identified;
c) a schedule and list of resources required for the systems engineering effort.
7 Systems engineering management activities
7.1 Management of stakeholder requirements analysis
The purpose of this activity is to manage the mission and the stakeholder requirements analysis in order to
achieve the expected outputs in the space system project. This management activity covers the identification
of planning, assessment and control tasks to ensure that the mission and stakeholder requirements analysis
process works properly.
It assesses whether the stakeholder requirements meet the expectations of the layout of the mission, the
required capability or the market opportunity. It also identifies if the customer expectations, established by
the mission need statement or capability definition, represent the problem space for systems engineering.
It creates leading indicators associated with the number of “requirements identified” and “requirements
approved
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