Using the Incremental Commitment Model to Integrate System Acquisition, Systems Engineering, and Software Engineering
Crosstalk: Journal of Defence Software Engineering, (October 2007)Abstract
One of the top recommendations to emerge from the October 2006 Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (DUSD)
Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (ATL) Defense Software Strategy Summit was to find ways of better integrating software
engineering into the systems engineering and acquisition process. Concurrently, the National Research Council (NRC)
study was addressing the problem of better integrating human factors into the systems engineering and acquisition process.
This article presents a model that emerged from these and related efforts that shows promise of improving integrations. This
model, called the Incremental Commitment Model (ICM), organizes systems engineering and acquisition processes in ways
that better accommodate the different strengths and difficulties of hardware, software, and human factors of engineering
approaches. It also provides points at which they can synchronize and stabilize, and at which their risks of going forward can
be better assessed and fitted into a risk-driven stakeholder resource commitment process.