Goddard Procedural Requirements (GPR)

The systems engineering effort is distributed across the many system elements that comprise the mission. The coordination of the many disciplines needed to develop, implement, and deliver the elements, and integrate them into an operational system, is both the great challenge and the great reward of systems engineering.

Good systems engineering teams start with a commitment to the delivery of the final product – the successful mission. Such a common focus promotes open communications, consensus building, and a problem solving culture. There is added value in the participation of product engineers in the discovery, development, and allocation of the Mission Design Requirements, architecture and design, and operations concept. Such participation communicates an understanding of the trades, compromises, and optimizations needed to formulate and implement the space mission. The resultant buy-in, by the product leads, results in a focused effort. An advantage of good communications is the collection of the best ideas from the team. Other benefits of open dialog with team members are the reduction of discrepancies, the easier resolution of problems and the improvement in team rapport.

This principle of participation, consensus building, and requirements buy-in is appropriate at all levels, from mission design through assembly and component design. It is the responsibility of systems engineers to foster this philosophy, to support each other through peer reviews, and when called upon, to provide expert advice/guidance in problem solving.