The Seraswati
Project
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The purpose of the Seraswati Project was to write an introductory book on
systems engineering, develop the accompanying courseware (lecture
slides, software (if any), notes and lesson plans for problem
based learning activities) for both classroom and online
delivery and prototype the material in regular and short courses
before submitting the final version for
publication.
The first iteration of the course
was presented at Cranfield University in November 2007.
For more information, or to make constructive
suggestions, please contact Associate Professor
Joseph Kasser
(
joseph.kasser@incose.org), Skype ID:
Prof_g3zcz.
This project was developed under a
Visiting Professorship grant from The Leverhulme Trust awarded
to Cranfield
University. |
Associate
Professor Joseph Kasser
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Interim Text Book published
September 10, 2007. The book "A Framework for Understanding Systems Engineering" contains many
of the readings for the course. The chapters are based on papers
published in International conferences and updated appropriately.
The book sells for a low $26.99 and may be found on
amazon.com.
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Background
The world is
turning to systems engineering to help acquire and maintain the complex
systems that underpin our 21st century civilization. However, in general,
systems engineering is poorly practiced (i.e. did your project
experience cost and schedule overruns?) and poorly taught (i.e. did
your class instructor meet these
top ten requirements for good
teaching?). My hypothesis is that one reason for this situation is the
lack of good teaching materials. While there are a number of books on
systems engineering, including my
own, they are based on the
author's experience and are designed for practicing systems engineers,
and consequently not designed for teaching at the introductory level. Thus
they are generally not accompanied by appropriate courseware.
The ideal instructor
for these courses is an accomplished practitioner working in the field
(day job) and teaching part-time. While recruiting these practitioners
in the Graduate School of Management and Technology at University
of Maryland University College (UMUC), I found that these people do not have the
time to prepare course materials. It was for this reason that I provided
my instructors at UMUC with sets of Power Point slides to use in
lectures. This project builds on that experience and goes beyond it. Using my
experience as a practitioner and educator (developing and teaching
courses) in several countries and cultures I am assembling a set of courseware and a
text book that should improve the teaching of introductory systems
engineering. I am using a systems engineering approach to:
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Develop a better understanding of the need.
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Document a set of requirements for the knowledge
courseware and book.
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Develop a prototype set of the materials.
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Test the prototype in short courses and in
parts of regular courses in several institutions.
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Revise the prototype materials into the final
version.
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Submit the final version to an appropriate
publisher.
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Process for creating a course |
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Project Phases
The plan is to perform the project in the
following phases using a systems engineering approach.
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Phase
1 - Develop a better understanding of the need.
The plan is to develop a better understanding
of the need using the following four phase approach.
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Work with the INCOSE Education and Research
Committee of which I am a member.
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I presented on
the project at the 2006 INCOSE Systems Engineering and Management
Conference hosted in Taiwan in November 2006, and facilitated an Academic and Industrial
discussion of the project at the INCOSE International Workshop in January 2007. These gatherings discussed the problem
and brainstormed potential solutions and provided some of the academic requirements for the body of knowledge to be covered by the courseware.
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I plan to perform a literature review of published surveys on the
skills that employers are looking for in systems engineers. The product of
this review will be requirements for the skill sets to be developed by participation
in the courseware exercises.
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I am soliciting practitioner experience from colleagues (past and present),
the NDIA and INCOSE, to provide examples of what systems engineers
actually did in situations and what resulted. The product of this
activity will be a wide range of examples from different industries and
project phases, something that is lacking or limited to the experience
of the instructor in today's undergraduate and introductory
environment.
- I am identifying a group of instructors around the
world who would be willing to test the prototype materials as they are
developed and provide feedback on their effectiveness.
Phase
2- Develop the prototype courseware based on the requirements
The body of knowledge will be chunked
into modules and a sequential flow will be determined. Lesson Plans will
be outlined and circulated to the instructors identified in Phase 1. The
courseware will then be developed. As opportunities arise, advantage will
be taken of scheduled courses to prototype completed materials. This is an
incremental approach known as "exploratory programming", which is defined
as a 'conscious intertwining of system design and implementation'. I have
used it successfully in the evolution of a postgraduate Requirements
Workshop first developed at UMUC in 1998 and later incorporated into
classes at UniSA. The Tiger Pro software which helps students find defects in existing requirements and
understand the difficulty of writing good requirements was developed using
this approach.
Phase
3 - Prototype the courseware and obtain feedback
The courseware will be prototyped in various
institutions. I plan to do this by appearing as a guest lecturer as much
as possible and by having the regular instructors use the modules.
Phase
4 - Revise the prototype materials into the final drafts
This is when the prototype materials are updated
into the final draft to be submitted to the publisher.
Phase 5
- Submit and publish
This is the phase of working with the publisher
proofing the manuscript, ensuring the permissions for cartoons and other
copyrighted materials are obtained, etc.
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Benefits of
this project
This project will produce
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Contributions
Wanted
A major problem with current books on
systems engineering, mine included, is that they are based on the experience
of a few people, concentrate on what needs to be done, skimp on how to
do it, and contain very few examples of the application of systems engineering
in the real world. Your contribution of an anecdote or two from your experience
is solicited. I'm looking for successes as well as failures. Should you
wish to keep the names of the projects and organizations confidential then
please set them in the fictitious Federated Aerospace. As I wrote in an
earlier book, Applying Total Quality Management to Systems Engineering
(Artech House, 1995),
"Federated Aerospace is a fictitious
company. Anecdotes set in Federated Aerospace may be based on my
experience or my imagination. In any event all names have been
changed to protect the guilty."
All contributions will be acknowleged in
the published materials assuming the contributor wishes that recognition. |
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Field testers
wanted
Educators are needed for field testing the
curriculum materials. Volunteers only.
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Systems Engineers
Systems engineers are the wizards who develop
and maintain the complex systems upon which our 21st century civilization
is based. The project will develop courseware for introductory studies
on basic systems engineering. This courseware covers the basic spells and
potions (tools and methodologies) that are used to perform the magic of
systems engineering. That is to say it should teach what to do and how
and when to do it. Experience and advanced courseware will then help you
understand why the spells and potions work, what happens if you change
the words or ingredients and how to become a master wizard. An early draft
set of requirements has been conceptualized by mixing ingredients from
systems engineering (Beer, Hall, Jackson, Checkland, INCOSE Symposium papers,
etc.), management (Taylor, Ford, Drucker, Peters, Hammer and Champy etc.),
and Quality (Deming, Juran and Crosby etc.), together with some original
twists and a thought from Winnie the Pooh.
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Relevant Publications
Kasser, J. E., "
The Hitchins-Kasser-Massie (HKM) Framework for Systems Engineering
", the 17th International Symposium of the INCOSE,
San Diego, CA., 2007.
Kasser, J. E., "
A Proposed Framework for a Systems Engineering Discipline
", The Conference on Systems Engineering Research, Hoboken, NJ, 2007.
Kasser, J. E. (2007),
Kasser J.E. (2007),An innovative introductory course to systems engineering:
Teaching a problem solving approach, presentation, audio MP3,
, NSSE, Taiwan.
Kasser, J. E. (2007), Developing
the Requirements for Introductory Courseware for Systems Engineering
,
the Asia Pacific Systems
Engineering Conference, Singapore.
Kasser, J. E., E. Sitnikova,
et al. (2005), Optimising
the Content and Delivery of Postgraduate Education in Engineering Management for
Government and Industry
, the International Engineering Management Conference (IEMC), St. John's, Newfoundland,
Canada.
Kasser, J. E., S. C. Cook, et al. (2004), Crafting a
Postgraduate Degree for Industry and Government , International Engineering Management Conference,
Singapore.
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Sponsors
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