IVTV

    IVTV means Integration Verification Transition and Validation. It is a plan developed and validated during the design step (see picture below) in order to check if the design matches with customer requirements. All stakeholders can refer to this document to see if design models are aligned with the customer's vision and the forecast. This document is also a way to insure a good transmission between teams, activities and processes concerning system design and system realization.

To explain what represent IVTV we can go through each terms:

• Integration: the purpose is to prepare the system of interest (SOI) for final validation, transition and for production.
• Verification: the verification process aims to ensure that the system will be built accordingly with customer requirements and will be validated with an acceptable level of risk.
• Transition: the goal is to ensure that all subsystems can be implemented together or all the interfaces needs are taking into account and managed.
• Validation: the validation process aims to ensure that the system satisfies the customer and user needs as stated and agreed and ready to be qualified or exploited.

In the IVTV document you will find all these informations:

• Description of the project
• Relevant documentation
• Abbreviations
• Description of the context: perimeter, constraints, requirements, parameters of the system to be checked
• Strategy: general principles, actions for integration, verification, transition and validation and schedule of these actions
• Organization and responsibilities: description of the team, human resources involved, way of working between teams
• Tools and practical resources (building, warehouse, test bench…)
• Planning of the design and the production of the system

    It is key to start the IVTV plan as soon as possible. The more early you start the IVTV the more efficient it will be. It is also very important that it is made by other workers to have new points of view. Thanks to this plan we can prove that the design match with the customer requirements. We also minimize the risk of discrepancies between the product and its design.

A good IVTV is obtained after a lot of iterations. A good communication between the different design department and the verification team is also one of the key aspect to ensure an efficient IVTV.

SE architecture

System engineering use several tools but the most important are architectures.

During the first step of the design we create several architectures of each systems and subsystems. We work on this thanks to a software which allows us to link all aspects of the design (needs, requirements, functions, components...).

The two main architectures are the following:

- Functional architecture

The goal of this architecture is to link all functions of a system and specialy their input and output. So we can justify why each function is needed.  We also see the logic behind our system.

- Organic architecture

The goal of this architecture is to provide a global image of the system components. We can see all links between parts of the system and what their flows are. Thanks to this architecture it will be easier to choose the good component and to implement them together.

We make these kinds of architectures for all system and subsystem but also for the context of our system. It allows us to place our system of interest in its context and see with what it interacts.

So we obtain a complete draw of the system where everything is linked together following the rules below.

These architectures will create new needs and new requirements that are required by the system or forgotten by the customer.

A good architecture is obtained after several iterations to check if anything is forgotten and if everything is coherent and relevant. Then in order to be sure that everything is correct a "verification and validation" step is made by an other team. We will see this aspect of SE in a next article.

Thanks to these architectures we have a precise first design of the system and we can prove that all requirements of the customer are taken into account.

System Engineering

   System engineering (SE) is an important part of our studies and we use what we learn during these courses to develop the RICA IV project.

In this first article about SE we will present you the general concept, its main goal and why this is useful.

What is System Engineering (SE) ?

   SE bring together several methods and tools in order to define a system. The goal of this method is to identify precisely all the needs of the stakeholders in order to create a product which match with all the requirements of customers. It comes in the first step of the design process of a device but it takes into account all the life cycle of the product.

SE main steps

   SE begins at the first step of a project : the analysis of the specifications and the study of customers requirements. The major part of the work is during the concept definition and system design but for each important step of the product creation we go back to the SE in order to check if the product match with the customer expectations. SE integrate also a method to verify and validate everything in itself which guaranty the quality and the relevance of each information. We will see this aspect of the SE call V&V and IVTV in a specific article.

The general work through of the SE can be drawn like below.

The main goal

   The main goal of the SE is to design a new product without forgetting anything. The thorough analysis of the customer requirements allow the designer to create a product which match as good as possible with the expectations of the customer. Thanks to this method and its iterations we can avoid the discovery of a design mistake after the realisation of the product. So it avoid the consequences of this : a majoration of the cost and a waste of time.

Applications

   SE can be use for all industrial sector and for different project size. But it is more efficient for big project and for the creation of complex system. So it is perfectly adapted to the RICA IV project and to make us work together.