Lean Aerospace Initiative Weekly Research Seminar

CoSysMo: Systems Engineering Cost Model

By Ricardo Valerdi, University of Southern California

About the Seminar:
Building on the synergy between Systems Engineering and Software Engineering, the Center for Software Engineering (CSE) at the University of Southern California (USC), has initiated an effort to develop a parametric model to estimate Systems Engineering costs.  The goal of this model, called COSYSMO (Constructive Systems Engineering Cost Model), is to more accurately estimate the time and effort associated with performing the system engineering tasks defined by EIA/ANSI 632 through the system life cycle phases defined in ISO/IEC 15288.
This presentation outlines the work accomplished over the past three years by USC, in collaboration with its Corporate Affiliates and the INCOSE Measurement Working Group, to develop the initial version of COSYSMO.  The presentation is divided into five parts:

1. Description of the model development process;
2. Explanation of its size and cost drivers;
3. Presentation of results from round 2 of the Delphi survey;
4. Explanation of the ongoing data collection process; and
5. Demonstration of the Raytheon/USC myCOSYSMO prototype

About Ricardo Valerdi:
Ricardo Valerdi is a Research Assistant at the Center for Software Engineering and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California.  He earned his bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of San Diego and a Masters from USC.  Ricardo is currently a Member of the Technical Staff at the Aerospace Corporation in the Economic & Market Analysis Center.  Previously, Ricardo worked as a Systems Engineer at Motorola and at General Instrument Corporation.