Mr. Alwyn Smit is a Principal Consultant and Course Presenter with Project Performance International (PPI). Alwyn has a B.Eng. (Electr) degree from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and is registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) as a professional engineer. He has spent the bulk of his career working in the South African defence industry as a systems engineer and project manager on technology-intensive projects, most recently as a principal systems engineer with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
As a lead systems engineer, Mr. Smit has contributed in a substantial way to the development of complex technology demonstrators as well as the low volume production of weapon systems in the areas of anti-aircraft systems, radar systems, electronic warfare systems and specialized equipment for special forces application.
He has led numerous project teams and frequently mentored other professionals in the activities of stakeholder requirements definition, requirements analysis and specification writing, architectural design, functional analysis, interface management, integration, verification and validation, commissioning, and systems engineering management.
Mr. Smit has extensive experience in the planning and execution of baseline reviews in accordance with the requirements of MIL-STD-1521B. He established a review program for a Strategic Capital Acquisition Master Plan (SCAMP) project for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to ensure that the system to be delivered is fit for purpose. This review program has ensured maximum user participation throughout the development phase, and largely contributed to the project successfully moving in a very short time through development to a production phase.
Mr. Smit has previously consulted with PPI in New Zealand and Australia for three months in the development of a sustainable Capability Requirements Development and Management Framework for a National Defence Force. The Framework enables consistent, complete accurate, justifiable, enduring and measurable capability requirements to be developed, defined, managed and tested to ensure capability is fit for purpose and meets user needs.
Mr. Smit is a founding member of the South African Chapter of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE SA) and was the first INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) in South Africa. He has served on the INCOSE SA management team in numerous roles including President. He is currently a co-opted member of the INCOSE SA Chapter Management Committee, an active member of the Western Cape branch. Mr. Smit is well known in South Africa and now worldwide for promoting systems engineering and more specifically systems engineering education.
Mr. Smit is a former member of the South African Bureau of Standards Working Group SC-71C on Systems and Software Life Cycle Processes. He has previously represented South Africa on the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 working group 7 (WG7) on Systems and Software Life Cycle Processes, developing the international systems engineering standard ISO/IEC 15288.
Mr. Smit also teaches postgraduate modules in Systems Engineering Management and Integration, Verification and Validation (IV&V) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg.
He developed the 5-day systems engineering management module to the requirements of Wits, and developed three of the four days of the IV&V module, again to the requirements of Wits. For PPI, Alwyn leads the annual refresh of our popular 5-day Systems Engineering Management Course. He has developed a Statement Of Work 2-Day PPI course to draft status. He has also contributed significantly to the development of PPI’s Project Risk Management 3-Day course.
Since joining the PPI team, Alwyn Smit has delivered on-site systems engineering related training to Airbus DS Optronics (Pty) Ltd (South Africa), Airservices Australia, Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS – South Africa), AREVA (Germany), Cubic Transportation Systems Ltd (UK), CSIR (South Africa), Dana (Belgium), Department of Defence (Australia), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA – Austria), Lockheed Martin (UK), Reutech Communications (South Africa) and Saab Grintek Technologies (Pty) Ltd. (South Africa).
He has delivered training extensively across five continents both publicly and on-site.
Alwyn lives in Strand, Western Cape, South Africa with his wife Elsabé. They have two adult children. He counts among his interests quad biking, and of course, family.
Affiliations
Member and Ambassador of INCOSE
Founding member and past president of the South African Chapter of INCOSE
Former member of the System Dynamics Society
Former member of the International Institute of Business Analysis
Observing member of the South African Bureau of Standards committee on system and software life cycle processes
INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP)
Professional Engineer – Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA)
Courses Presented
- Systems Engineering Management (5-Day)
- Requirements Analysis & Specification Writing (5-Day)
- Systems Engineering (5-Day)
- Systems Engineering Overview (3-Day)
- Project Risk and Opportunity Management (3-Day)
- Preparing Great Requirements Specification (1-Day)
