What is the relationship between systems engineering, project management, and contracting?

The transportation, infrastructure and energy sectors are continually engaged in acquiring engineered solutions using projects as a mechanism for creating or upgrading high value critical assets. For example, several projects (or a single project) might be the basis for connecting two populaces living some given distance apart. When connecting these populaces, in addition to technological problems, those social, political and environmental compliance issues would also require understanding and resolution. An initial project would therefore be initiated to explore and understand these problems, their solutions feasibility, time needed, and costs estimation. Those findings from this initial project may result in other projects, which over time would connect the populaces with varying solutions.

For a given project, its entire work activities requiring completion (i.e. scope) would be captured in a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and it forms the project management foundation. The work activities associated with problem definition and solutions engineering are arguably the most important WBS elements because they inform a project’s critical scope and forms its significant cost basis. To ascertain this critical scope, both soft systems methodology and model-based systems engineering can be used to explore the problem space and to develop optimal solutions. Importantly, project management and systems engineering are integrated via the WBS. The systems engineering focus is on delivering the project’s technical scope.

If project management and systems engineering are scope related, then successful project delivery is governed by a fitting procurement method and an accompanying contract. The preferred procurement and contracting methods should suit a project’s risk profile and can either be ‘fixed’ price or another type of contract. Therefore, proper integration of project management, systems engineering and contracting increases the probability of on-time project delivery within estimated costs. - Chanaka Aluwihare