Exploring Beliefs about Using Systems Engineering to Capture Contracts

When contracts require that complex systems be engineered, systems engineering often leads the technical activities on proposals. Decision makers in organizations have beliefs gained from trial-and-error experiences about how to use systems engineering on proposals to capture contracts. This paper explores a set of these beliefs. Each belief is formalized into a hypothesis so it can be empirically evaluated. Analysis results from a survey designed to identify critical success factors on proposals are analyzed to evaluate each hypothesis. The survey research is discussed, including the survey content, how the survey was created and administered, the process for analyzing survey results and threats to validity related to the survey. The survey data is used to draw conclusions about each hypothesis and belief.