Category Archives: systems thinking

So what should we be teaching systems engineers and project managers?

Posted on February 1, 2022 by joseph kasser

In my previous blog I pointed out that one of the reasons for project failures was that we were not teaching the right things to systems engineers and project managers.  This leads to the question, what should we be teaching them? If you ask most systems engineers as to what the system they are developing should do once it is placed into operation, they will tell you to look at the requirements. So when I … Continue reading →

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Most systems engineers and project managers don’t seem to be insane, but many of them seem to be either ignorant or incompetent.

Posted on January 11, 2022 by joseph kasser

One reason for systems engineers and project managers repeating the same activities and expecting different results pointed out by Niels Malotaux pointed out in his LinkedIn comment was, “ignorance or incompetence” (Malotaux, 2021).  Actually, this observation is not new. Almost 30 years ago, Deming stated that 94% of the problems belong to the system (i.e., were the responsibility of management) (Deming, 1993). Juran, as quoted by Harrington stated that management causes 80 – 85% of … Continue reading →

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Are project managers and systems engineers insane?

Posted on December 9, 2021 by joseph kasser

First published in 1994, the annual Standish (Chaos) report annually points out that significant numbers of projects fail to meet their goals on time or within budget and many of those projects are cancelled with the corresponding non-productive spending of billions. The 2015 report concluded that, “over the last 20 years the project management field has experienced increasing layers of project management processes, tools, governance, compliance, and oversight. Yet these activities and products have done … Continue reading →

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