Is the Systems Engineering Process Inherently Flawed? PDF Print E-mail
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By Jorg Largent

The on-line INCOSE “Systems Engineering Handbook” defines systems engineering as three things: a profession, a process, and a perspective. The process portion of that triad has a built-in flaw. The “flaw” is not in the INCOSE definition; it is an intrinsic part of the process.

In the minds of most, a process has a starting point, a step one, a t0. The systems engineering process, as applied to any given project, does not have a starting point. Any given project has a starting point, but the application of the systems engineering process does not.

In part this is due to the fact that there are no projects that are 100% new. It is not beyond the realm of reason to say that there could be a completely novel project, but, typically, the technologies and architectures of a project are built on technologies and architectures that existed prior to the project’s initiation. Examples abound.
Heavier-than-air powered flight began with the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903. (History has snubbed New Zealand’s Richard Pearse.) While that is a convenient t0 for those of us in the aerospace industry, that is not the beginning. The Wright brothers’ flight was a convergence of established technologies, gliders and the internal combustion engine being two of major note. The works of Cayley, Lilienthal, Chanute, and Langley illustrate the maturation of the technology available to the Wright brothers. These predecessor works also drove the architecture of their system. These facts from history do not detract from the creativity, industry, and inventiveness of the Wright brothers; they simply illustrate the fact that significant portions of the requirements and architecture were in place before they began their project.

Similarly, the technology and architecture of railroads, one of the most established systems of systems, date back thousands of years. Wooden-planked progenitors of the modern steel rail date from Roman times. In addition, the Romans are well known for their roads, bridges, and aqueducts. In parallel with these advances in technology are the oft-unheralded advances in metallurgy that led to the economical manufacture of the steels necessary to the manufacture of rails, locomotives, bridges, and rolling stock. Heron of Alexandria is credited with several inventions, including a steam engine, a piston pump, and a firepowered pneumatic device to open doors. While the exact details of his works have been blurred a bit over the intervening 2,000 years, the influence of his work upon the technologies of using heat to a mechanical advantage are self-evident.

Elaine Thorpe, a Boeing Technical Fellow in Human Systems Integration (HSI), spoke to the Chapter at the May Speaker Meeting. Her presentation included the insightful recognition that the architecture of future systems is, in part, being defined in the expectations of a “tech-savvy” population — a population of young people who will be using future systems but who will bring with them experiences and expectations based on the technology of cell phones, video games, and other devices in their world today.

Engaging the systems engineering process at the beginning of a project is akin to letting out the clutch on an automobile with a manual transmission and the engine running. The importance of a smooth start and of properly engaging the systems engineering process at the startup of a process is illustrated in Figure 2-3, “Committed Life Cycle Cost against Time,” of the on-line “SE Handbook v3.1.” The figure illustrates the sensitivity of a project’s success to activities in the beginning: 70% of the cost is committed during the first 8% of a project.

Therein lies the challenge for the systems engineering profession: properly engaging the process at the beginning of a project. The next challenge: if the process has no beginning, does it also have no end?
Last Updated ( Monday, 07 September 2009 11:22 )