Art of Systems Engineering

Summary
Name
Institution
Date of Submission
What the Lessons Learned From Large, Complex, Technical Projects Tell Us about the Art of Systems Engineering
System engineering gained recognition after the Second World War and had its origins in aerospace and defense sectors. It is critical that the system methodology encourages holistic thinking and recognizes major characteristics of a system. System engineering is a meta-discipline, which interacts and coordinates with various related disciplines like integrated logistic support, test and evaluation, development engineering, project management, software engineering and configuration management. This paper highlight the lessons learned from huge projects about systems engineering.
NASA listed various areas where mistakes are made in projects and they include lack of a clear definition of the requirements in the early stages of the design phase. The other mistakes are poorly defined interfaces between subsystems and inadequate test planning. Failing to think over the design until its completion and paying insufficient attention to mission operations on design requirements are other additional mistakes.
The shortcomings identified in the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) include ineffective co-operation between stakeholders, insensitive suppliers, and insufficient investment during the project initiation stage. The other shortcomings are over-optimism in predicting cost and time, and insufficient appreciation of commercial and technical risk. Therefore, the MOD intends on adopting a through-life systems approach, employ improved commercial practices, institute solutions for unsatisfactory performance and pay attention to training and personnel. They also want to use uniform information management systems.
The lessons learned from big UK and USA civil software system developments were similar for the two regions. They problems of the systems included failing to meet their goals, being delivered late, over-budgeting, and failed or uncompleted developments. Therefore, the conclusion was that system engineering could improve high proportions of software-based project product. The US Federal government realized that without a methodical and disciplined approach to software development, large projects could degenerate to overwhelming and amorphous tasks. Therefore, application of system engineering principles can deliver better systems, which are more cost-effective. This can be achieved by combining soft system methodologies and contemporary systems engineering.
Summary: Twelve Systems Engineering Roles
Since the inception of INCOSE (International Council of Systems Engineering), the council has been trying to answer the puzzle on what is systems engineering. This paper will analyze the twelve roles of system engineering. The first role is that of a requirements owner. It entails grouping together requirements-related tasks. This entails translating the wants of the customer into specific requirements that will enable the design of system and subsystems. The system designer role comes next and the person in this role develops the high-level design, architecture and selects major components. The third role is the system analyst role where the engineer confirms that the sy...