Functional Modelling and IDEF0 to Enhance and Support Process Tailoring in Systems Engineering

The primary reference to modern systems engineering procedure is the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Systems Engineering Handbook. The main problem of such handbook is that it has a very high degree of complexity and could appear fragmented as well as challenging to follow for readers, coupled with the isolation of the Input-Process-Output (IPO) diagrams that withhold an overall system vision of the discipline. The authors highlight the embedded complexity of systems engineering and in particular of the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook identifying process modelling as a viable and efficient solution. The authors propose IDEF0 as an ideal modelling technique due to the similarity of the IDEF0 diagrams with the IPO diagrams and the addition of the functional modelling hierarchical decomposition. Concluding, the authors present an example of the benefits that using the model, rather than referring to the handbook alone, yield to process tailoring in terms of efficiency and overall system optimisation.