Systems Engineering Glossary

Performance Requirement.  A performance requirement is a statement that describes how well a function is to be executed or achieved, or how well it is to be accomplished.

Physical Architecture.  The physical architecture is a hierarchical arrangement of the physical (people, products, processes) solutions, including: functional, performance, and verification requirements; internal and external interfaces; and constraints.

Physical Configuration Audit.  A physical configuration audit is part of the configuration management activities undertaken within systems engineering to examine the as-built configuration item against the various specifications to ensure that the physical as-built configuration is the same as that described by those specifications.

Preliminary Design.  Preliminary Design (the second of the Acquisition Phase activities) converts the functional baseline from Conceptual Design (the ‘what’ of the system) into a preliminary definition of the system physical architecture (the ‘how’).

Preliminary Design Review (PDR).  The Preliminary Design Review is held at the conclusion of Preliminary Design to evaluate the Preliminary Design effort and to review and approve the Allocated Baseline containing the Development Specifications.

Product Baseline.  The Product Baseline is the result of the Detailed Design and Development stage of the system lifecycle

Product Specification.  The Product Specification is developed during the Detailed Design and Development activities of the systems engineering lifecycle.

Prototype.  A prototype is a model of an end or enabling product that is built during the Acquisition Phase to assist in the design activities.

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