A Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) is a foundational document that addresses a contractor’s overall systems engineering and technical management approach in an organization. It provides unique insight into applying a contractor’s standards, capability models, configuration management, and toolsets to their organization. This differs from a Systems Engineering Plan (SEP), which should address System Engineering (SE) aspects of a particular program or project.  The SEMP is usually written in response to a government SEP and shall describe a contractor’s proposed efforts for planning, controlling, and conducting a fully integrated engineering effort. The SEMP is the rule book that describes to all project personnel and stakeholders how a project will be technically managed.

Definition: The Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) is a organizational document that details the technical and management processes that will be used and applied by program and engineering personnel on how system engineering activities will be organized and managed on projects.

Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) Purpose

The purpose of the SEMP is to provide detailed technical and management processes for engineering staff to follow to ensure sound systems engineering practices are followed and accomplished. Its goal is to explain in detail how these engineering tasks will be done. The SEMP provides the foundation for all systems engineering activities in an organization.

Benefits of a Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP)

Using a SEMP has several advantages.

• It encourages a thorough approach to effort planning. The SEMP will include the project plan, but it is considerably more comprehensive because it discusses how the project plan’s activities will be handled, how everything through the lifecycle, and how resources will interact and come together.
• It encourages the management of the endeavor as a system in and of itself. The SE Lead must specify how the team members will collaborate, the procedures they will follow to carry out the activities, and the end outputs (or outcomes) of those activities.
• It acts as the project’s comprehensive guide and roadmap. It is a centralized information hub for the effort’s direction, communication, and documentation.
• The effort’s success is also enabled by thorough planning, effective management, a decrease in rework brought on by a lack of processes and poor communication, and collaborative input and execution.

Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) Development [2]

The SEMP should be developed before an organization undertakes any projects. The development of the programmatic and technical management approaches requires that the key project personnel understand the work to be performed and the relationships among the various parts of that work. A SEMP’s development requires contributions from leadership, program management, engineering personnel, technical experts, cost estimators, schedulers, and many other areas that impact a project outcome.

Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) includes: [1]

• Cover/title page
• Document history
• Table of contents
• An introduction that includes the document’s purpose, suggested audience, and list of key terms.
• An executive summary of the document’s content
• An overview of the proposed SE approach. (See below)

Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) Content: [1]

The contractor should have its SEMP developed during the proposal process prior to any cost-estimating efforts. The SEMP is used in the preparation of any cost estimate and should describe the technical content as follows:

1. Organization of the development team, along with their physical location and facilities needs
2. Technical environments for a project and how they will be managed. It should also discuss the interaction with the pre-production and production environments.
3. Description of the evaluation and decision-making process to be used when resolving technical questions
4. System Engineering Methodology:
   • Configuration Management: Include a description of how project configuration items (e.g. source code) will be managed.
   • Requirements Verification and Validation: Include a description of how the Use Cases will be clarified and expanded, requirements validated, and updated requirements reviewed and approved by the project office.
   • The Architecture and Design Process (both logical and physical design), including how issues will be discussed and resolved.
   • The software development methodology to be used reflects the requirements (for iterative builds and incremental releases).
   • The hardware development and configuration methodology to be used reflects the requirements (for iterative builds and incremental releases).
   • The build management process is used to create and manage builds.
   • The testing process to be used encompasses the requirements.
5. Description of how external interfaces will be developed and managed.
6. Description of how data conversion development will be performed and managed.
7. Implementation Planning to include a description of how you will manage the deployment of system functionality, the training required for both end-users and technical staff, the coordination/communication needed to prepare the target environments.
8. Production Support strategy
9. A description of how production support will be done concurrently with development, given the incremental release requirements for the project.

Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) Outline

NASA Systems Engineering Handbook Appendix J SEMP Outline [2]

1. Purpose and Scope
2. Applicable Documents
3. Technical Summary
4. Technical Effort Integration
5. Common Technical Processes Implementation
6. Technology Insertion
7. Additional SE Functions and Activities
8. Integration with the Project Plan and Technical Resource Allocation
9. Compliance Matrices

Key Takeaways for Developing a Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP)

A Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) is a document that describes the systems engineering processes and activities that will be used to build and maintain a system over its entire lifecycle. It is an important tool for both systems engineers and program managers because it helps ensure the system is built logically and consistently and that all stakeholders are kept up to date on progress and any problems that come up. Some important things for a systems engineer and program manager to remember when creating a SEMP could be:

• Define the system’s goals and scope: It’s important to define it because that will help ensure the SEMP is focused and clearly relevant.
• Find out who the stakeholders are: It’s important to find out who the stakeholders are in the system development process to consider their needs and concerns.
• Set up a systems engineering process: A well-defined systems engineering process is needed to ensure that the system is built in a way that makes sense and is consistent.
• Describe the systems engineering team’s roles and responsibilities: It is important to define the roles and responsibilities so that everyone knows what to do.
• Set up a communication plan: A good communication plan is important to ensure that everyone is kept up to date on progress and any problems that come up.
• Describe the risk management process: One important part of systems engineering is finding and taking care of risks. Defining a process for finding, analyzing, and reducing risks are important.
• Set up an integration and testing plan for the system: You need a well-defined integration and testing plan to ensure that the system is built logically and consistently and that all parts work well together.

Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) Checklist

To guarantee the accuracy of the SEMP, make sure you provide a response to the following queries.

• Are the systems engineering techniques outlined in the SEMP sufficient to meet all of the project’s technical challenges?
• Are the procedures required for requirements analysis described in the SEMP?
• Verify if the SEMP outlines the stages needed for design analysis and design processes that lead to the best possible design.
• Are any required auxiliary technical plans, like an Integration or Verification Plan, properly identified in the SEMP?
• Does it specify the format and timing of their writing?
• Does the SEMP specify stakeholder participation when it’s required?
• Does the SEMP list every technical employee and development team that is needed? Does it specify the technical responsibilities that the development teams, project personnel, stakeholders, and system owner are expected to carry out?
• Are the interfaces between the different development teams covered by the SEMP?

Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) Additional Details

Here are a few more crucial details about the SEMP that program managers and engineers should consider:

• The SEMP is a work in progress. Early in each project’s formulation phase, the first SEMP is used to define the technical substance of the engineering work. It is then modified as needed during the course of the project life cycle.
• Tailored project requirements or substantial SE process customizations should be documented in the SEMP.
• The SEMP for multi-level projects ought to align with both the project plan and higher-level SEMPs.
• The SEMP for a contracted technical effort should contain information on creating specifications for source selection, tracking performance, and integrating and transferring items.

AcqNotes Tutorial

AcqTips:

• Many contractors will call their SEMP a Systems Engineering Plan. The names are used interchangeably, so check beforehand.
• Software planning in the Systems Engineering Plan
• This Data Item Description (DID) for the industry-developed Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) was released in October 2009; it replaces DI-MGMT-81024 SEMP
• Many contractors will call their SEMP a Systems Engineering Plan. The names are often used interchangeably so check beforehand.

AcqLinks and References:

• [1] Data Item Description – System Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) (MS Word)
• [2] NASA Systems Engineering Handbook, 2007
• Sandia Report “Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP)” -Oct 2009
• Presentation: Boeing SEP and SEMP Plan Alignment
• Systems Engineering Plan Outline – 20 April 2011
• DoD Systems Engineering Preparation Guide – April 2008 (Superseded by SE Plan Outline)
• Addendum to SEP Preparation Guide v2 – 2 July 2009
• Iterations in the Systems Engineering Process Guide – 14 Sept 2009
• Template: OSD System Engineering Plan Template_v2.0

Updated: 2/6/2024

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