Systems Engineering Coordination for Sustaining Engineering in a Matrix Product Management and Development Organization

A major focus of many implementation discussions on Systems Engineering revolves around developing a large database of information, to be reused later, benefiting the company's product development process. Business needs for agile and flexible responses place pressure on the maintenance of the database during Sustaining Engineering of the product. The business needs of the product management functions are discussed to frame the problem of maintaining the Systems Engineering database. This paper focuses on the maintenance of the Systems Engineering database during Sustaining Engineering activities. The process for ensuring the ‘Systems Engineering Documentation Set’ is being kept current is analyzed and described. Experiences regarding the dynamics of a Matrix Organization for Sustaining Engineering are discussed.