Developing a Systems Engineering Guidebook for ITS Projects in California

The State of California’s Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) jointly developed a Systems Engineering Guidebook (SE Guidebook) for Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Projects in California. This paper describes the background of Systems Engineering training in California and the content of the recently developed Systems Engineering Guidebook for ITS. This Guidebook was developed in response to the application of Best Practices to the development of ITS projects and the FHWA Final Rule (Title 23 CFR 940 part 11) requiring the use of a Systems Engineering analysis to implement Intelligent Transportation Systems projects. The guidebook is a roadmap through the process of planning, developing, implementing, maintaining and retiring of ITS systems, with a focus on the Systems Engineering process and contains specific information to assist ITS Planners, Practitioners, and their managers. The guidebook is based on Industry Best Practices in Systems Engineering and tailored specifically to the development of ITS projects. The guidebook uses the Vee technical model as the overarching framework for the development of ITS projects. The Guidebook addresses the entire lifecycle starting from the interfacing to the regional ITS architecture through to the retirement and/or replacement of the system or major sub-systems.