Compiled by Jorg Largent with inputs from Drew Christensen and Dick Emerson

Dr. Doug Loverro, Executive Director, SMC, Air Force Space Command – Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA, spoke on “Systems Engineering Revitalization” at the April 12, 2009 speaker meeting, hosted at the Aerospace Corporation. Two attendees shared their views of the evening in this article. Drew Christensen, a student at Loyola Marymount, was one of 18 students who attended the speaker meeting. This meeting gave the students their first introduction to a professional engineering society and helped the students understand the importance of systems engineering, the nature of future jobs, and the challenges facing the industry today. Mr. Christensen expressed his thanks to INCOSE-LA, Dr. Bo Oppenheim, and the Aerospace Corporation for allowing him and the other students to attend this presentation, for the hosted dinner, and for the opportunity to take part in an interesting discussion about the future of the profession. Mr. Christensen took away the following insights:

Dr. Doug Loverro spoke on “Systems Engineering Revitalization” and the role of systems engineers as problem solvers. Loverro spoke on the need for a revitalization of the field of systems engineering due to a shrinking workforce. The holistic approach to engineering taken by such engineers is crucial to the mission and future of space protection. An increase in the number of systems engineers would ensure the continued success of the U.S. as a leader in satellite and space technology. Loverro was also concerned with the difficulties encountered in government-customer collaboration. He spoke on the value of streamlining the process, avoiding over-constraint of the design requirements, and therefore facilitating the best possible solution to the problem.

Dr. Loverro discussed the topic from three points of view. First was a discussion of the situation we are in now and the past actions or inactions we as systems engineers have taken to arrive at this position. This section was brief and consisted mostly of statistics. The second section was a list, with illustrations, of “Systems Engineering Proverbs.” The last section of the presentation addressed, again briefly, some of the action that will be necessary in the future to improve the performance of systems engineering.

The conclusion of the first section was that, in general, projects and programs are delivering less now for more time and money than they were in the ‘60’s [a complementing point of tension with respect to some of the needs and challenges discussed in the May speaker meeting]. In part this results from not taking the time constraint as seriously as we should.

The Proverbs addressed other aspects of the gap in performance. The following Proverbs were noted by Dick:

Proverb 1: Good architecture is expensive and bad architecture is even more expensive. It is difficult to address a project in the abstract terms demanded by architectural viewpoints. As a result the project often runs off chasing a solution thinking that it is the solution only, to find it — the project — has painted itself into a corne or, worse yet, solved the wrong problem. Typically ~75% of the cost of a system is in the implementations and operations phases. Design, including architecture, is left with only about 25%. Several factors make designing more fun and profitable (to one’s career) than architecting. First and foremost, design results in much more tangible products. Second, our education is discipline-specific and our career rewards come from excelling in one or a few disciplines.

Proverb 2: Systems architectures are increasingly more complex, both internally and externally.

Proverb 3: Systems other than the one under development are developing dependencies with the new system just by the development and deployment of the new system. This increases the cost of failure. In turn, the new system becomes dependent upon the external systems. The symbiosis is another increase in complexity.

Proverb 4: Given eight hours to chop down a tree, spend six hours sharpening the ax. OR work smarter, not harder. Flailing away looks productive, until you realize that the tree is still there and all the bushes are splintered, scattered, and disorganized.

Proverb 5: The speed of change today makes the Schedule Requirement (Constraint) more important. An excellent system late is unfortunate.

Proverb 6: Tests trump opinions. [The owners of some opinions have been known to deny the validity of the test results.]

Proverb 7: A clever person solves the problem; a wise person avoids it.

The challenges of systems engineering were illustrated with the Space Systems Launch and Range operations infrastructure — in particular Space System Protection. After considering the threats, number of affected systems, and vulnerabilities, strategies for protection need to be developed. Some of the strategies include: protection (hardening) against the threat, avoidance of threat, hiding from it, defending against it, deterring it (actively preventing it), developing an alternative so that the aggregate is immune, or nearly so, to the threats, and producing systems that constitute themselves (self-healing).
During the question-and-answer portion of the meeting Dr. Loverro touched on such elements as Test-as-you-fly and the process for developing a systems engineer — start at the back end, testing (where you learn what to avoid), proceed through design, (where you learn what is possible), and finally, proceed to systems engineering, where you develop an understanding of the big picture.