Abstract for: Dynamic Performance Measurement and Evaluation: Will Bridging Paradigms Lead to Improved System Design?

Within the domain of systems engineering, conceptual frameworks are used to assist engineers, managers, and policy makers to determine new or modified system designs (Blanchard and Fabrycky, 2006). The designs are driven by requirements set typically by the users and are monitored using technical performance measures (TPMs). System designs are considered effective if they meet the pre-determined TPM values along with life-cycle cost and schedule targets. Therefore, in terms of measuring and assessing system design, one would expect synergy between the systems engineering and the performance measurement literatures. One possible synergistic thrust between these two bodies of literature is the modeling and assessment of dynamic system performance. An approach to that can directly account for dynamic performance measurement and evaluation during these transitional periods is the dynamic performance measurement model (DPEM) (Vaneman and Triantis, 2007). The primary objective of this paper is to present this approach and review it in relation to other dynamic measurement approaches found in the literature. Two examples are discussed that illustrate the implementation of the approach. Another objective of this paper is to discuss why dynamic considerations can potentially lead to improved system designs. A tertiary objective is to outline specific future modeling and implementation challenges that require further research.