As I continue my way through the Systems Engineering masters program, I’m finding myself longing for the most basic and rudimentary definition for what Systems Engineering is. I know what a system is, and I know what an engineer is, but what exactly is System Engineering? There are certainly more than enough definitions out there, but finding the right definition for myself is crucial if I indeed plan to have a successful career in the topic. Applying the ‘law of parsimony’, or Occam’s Razor, I believe that System Engineering consists of 2 basic elements.
The first element is organization – to get what is in peoples heads onto paper. This would seem fairly trivial, but as systems grow larger and more complex, you soon see that there is an efficient and systematic way to organizing information for many people to collaborate on. It is fairly easy with a bright mind and some form of education on a particular subject to conceive a collection of ideas that fashion a solution for a particular problem. It is another thing to take an idea and successfully implement a complex system of interconnected pieces and parts that work together seamlessly. As system become progressively more complex containing a nearly un-fathomable number of components, it is critical that there exist a system of documenting the thoughts that brought about a solution and it’s instructions. With this organization is built the foundation for collaboration to begin. Even God Himself said that “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” – Genesis 11. Organization within Systems Engineering allows all involved to ‘speak the same language’. Lest just pray that we build systems that do not glorify ourselves… we’ve seen how that ends up.
The second element is decision making - the process for obtaining the best result stemming from the necessity to choose between two or more alternatives. This as well seems trivial, but again, due to the immense amount of complexity systems are beginning to represent, deciding to choose one alternative over another could have a ripple effect that runs throughout the entire system. The ability to logically and analytically attain data representing why one approach is a more advantageous alternative than another is critical. Essentially, the entire architecture of a solution is a collection of decisions. An entire field has been dedicated to the art of decision-making called Decision Analysis, and has become pivotal to the process of system architecture.
Short and simple, the combination of these two elements facilitates the process of reducing risk within a system. That is why Systems Engineering exists.
I look forward to the next year of grad school and see how my views on Systems Engineering change. I hope what I have written above is dead on, but if there’s anything that I have learned, it’s that I’m rarely ‘dead on’.
Showing posts with label Systems Engineering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Systems Engineering. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Grad School
Many of you know that I’m back in school. Probably because I’m always talking about it. I suppose what’s on your mind is what you talk about, and it certainly has been taking up a large part of my mind lately. I’m getting my Systems Engineering masters degree at UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County). I ran into a former co-worker the other day and told him about my attempt at a Systems Engineering masters degree, and he quickly rolled his eyes. “Systems Engineering, why would you waste your time with that? What the heck is Systems Engineering anyhow?”
I can’t really blame him for reacting that way. A lot of companies ranging from the very large to the small start-ups have those positions that they’re not really sure what to call them, so they slap the name ‘Systems Engineer’ on it for a title. Most likely they’re entry-level positions that require only a few functions in order to become familiar with a project or technology. So the fact that people don’t think highly of Systems Engineering isn’t really all that surprising. The problem stems from the fact that people don’t understand what Systems Engineering is or what its purpose holds.
INCOSE defines Systems Engineers as "a branch of engineering whose responsibility is creating and executing an interdisciplinary process to ensure that customer and stakeholders needs are satisfied in a high quality, trustworthy, cost efficient and schedule compliant manner throughout a system's entire life cycle, from development to operation to disposal.” So what the heck does that mean? Well, Systems Engineering is composed of many disciplines including gathering the requirements that define the solution to the problem, defining the boundaries and interfaces through partitioning, functions and functional flow, measurements of performance, risk assessment and management, and so on and so on. This is a vague and very incomplete description, but it gets the idea across.
As society’s problems become more and more complex, the solutions needed to tackle those problems will be that much more complex. The approach taken towards these problems can’t be solutions made up of one particular field. Airplanes are mechanical, electrical, aeronautical, material, and so on in nature. A great deal of planning, preparation, and program management is needed to guide so many fields to a single and complete goal. There are so many things that can go wrong, and so few things that can go right. Many of the undistinguished solutions that we take for granted everyday that increase the value of our lives are systems that had to be meticulously planned and constructed, many times over the course of years or decades. Something not to be taken lightly. I hope that I can some how be a part of constructing something so intricate and complex to be used and appreciated like the systems I use and appreciate today.
I can’t really blame him for reacting that way. A lot of companies ranging from the very large to the small start-ups have those positions that they’re not really sure what to call them, so they slap the name ‘Systems Engineer’ on it for a title. Most likely they’re entry-level positions that require only a few functions in order to become familiar with a project or technology. So the fact that people don’t think highly of Systems Engineering isn’t really all that surprising. The problem stems from the fact that people don’t understand what Systems Engineering is or what its purpose holds.
INCOSE defines Systems Engineers as "a branch of engineering whose responsibility is creating and executing an interdisciplinary process to ensure that customer and stakeholders needs are satisfied in a high quality, trustworthy, cost efficient and schedule compliant manner throughout a system's entire life cycle, from development to operation to disposal.” So what the heck does that mean? Well, Systems Engineering is composed of many disciplines including gathering the requirements that define the solution to the problem, defining the boundaries and interfaces through partitioning, functions and functional flow, measurements of performance, risk assessment and management, and so on and so on. This is a vague and very incomplete description, but it gets the idea across.
As society’s problems become more and more complex, the solutions needed to tackle those problems will be that much more complex. The approach taken towards these problems can’t be solutions made up of one particular field. Airplanes are mechanical, electrical, aeronautical, material, and so on in nature. A great deal of planning, preparation, and program management is needed to guide so many fields to a single and complete goal. There are so many things that can go wrong, and so few things that can go right. Many of the undistinguished solutions that we take for granted everyday that increase the value of our lives are systems that had to be meticulously planned and constructed, many times over the course of years or decades. Something not to be taken lightly. I hope that I can some how be a part of constructing something so intricate and complex to be used and appreciated like the systems I use and appreciate today.
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