Creating outstanding systems engineers

If you are a systems engineer with a few years experience and have taken at least one training class, and feel you could do better and move up to the next level, then this is the place for you to start that process.

The course component of the program is a breadth course about systems engineering and the application of systems engineering. Unlike most similar courses that may talk about systems engineering as a meta-discipline but concentrate on the systems engineering process, this course considers systems engineering as an enabling discipline similar to mathematics and systems engineering as the application of cognitive skills such as systems thinking in problem-solving in all states of the system lifecycle (SLC) of all kinds of systems, technical, socio-technical and complex.

This course has run weekly since December 2020 and each participant has progressed at his or her own pace. The live sessions discuss exercises and problems participants are facing. Each session is recorded and the full set of recordings are available to all participants.

The course has 7 textbooks (provided), 24 modules, 54 lessons and 1518 PowerPoint slides. If you expect to become an outstanding systems engineer in a week, this is not the program for you.

Two reasons why this class was developed

1. I was teaching systems engineering, software engineering and project management to Master’s students and one day I realized that I kept hearing myself saying, “you won’t find that in the textbooks”. What I was teaching was based on some of what was in the textbooks as well as my experience in industry. And I wondered why (1) that experiential information was not in the textbooks, and (2) why all the text books contained different topics.
2. Over the years, I taught postgraduate and continuing education classes in semester mode, block mode, face-to-face and online synchronously and asynchronously in several countries and noticed that each mode had advantages and disadvantages and thought about designing a teaching mode that had all the advantages of all the different modes with few if any of the disadvantages. I gave a talk to the British Computer Society in June 2023 summarizing some of the research. See Improving E-learning with systems thinking: anecdotes and lessons learned.

So this class content and format is the result of more than 20 years of research which also provided a number of peer-reviewed publications most of which are in my publications page or on Researchgate.

Access to the modules and lessons

You access the course video lectures and readings via Voomly (the host system), the course host platform.

Structure

The course uses the Evercourse format. Read this first !!!!!

Unless otherwise stated all lecture videos are unlisted and are not be shared outside this class without permission. YouTube videos may be shared without permission.

Text books

• Systems Engineering a Systemic and Systematic Methodology for Solving Complex Problems, CRC Press, 2020 (printed or eBook: student’s choice).
• Kasser, J.E., Holistic Thinking: creating innovative solutions to complex problems (HT), Createspace 2013 (in pdf)
• Kasser, J.E., A Framework for Understanding Systems Engineering (FUSE), Createspace, 2013 (in pdf)
• Kasser, J.E., Perceptions of systems engineering (POSE), Createspace, 2015 (in pdf)

Modules

Module 0 Introduction and overview

The course follows the problem solving process.

Purpose

1. To introduce the course.
2. To explain the structure of the course.
3. To provide administrative information.
4. To provide an overview of the modules and how they fit together.
5. To discuss the two biggest mistakes students make in essay examinations and how to easily eliminate them.

Module 1 Pure Systems Engineering

This module has been replaced by modules 1 to 6 in the “Creating outstanding problem solvers” course. The three lessons in the original semester mode class did not provide enough knowledge.

Purpose

1. To provide the problem-solving skills (pure systems engineering) to help the student become an outstanding systems engineer by understanding the nature of thinking, problems and problems-solving and the benefits of systems thinking and beyond when dealing with undesirable situations.

Module 2 Applied Systems Engineering

This module helps the student understand the current state of the discipline and the reasons for the many different definitions of systems engineering and the different contents of the textbooks. It does so using the holistic thinking perspectives discussed in module 1.

Contents

1. Systems engineering as perceived from the eight holistic thinking perspectives; perceptions you will find nowhere else
2. The reasons for the various definitions of systems engineering
3. How systems engineering relates to problem-solving
4. Pure and applied systems engineering and the benefits of the separation
5. The iterative systems development process
6. The little-known reason why the waterfall, spiral and V model of systems engineering are different views of the same process
7. The two systems engineering paradigms and why using the wrong one dooms the project to failure
8. The benefits of using Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and why it’s much ado about nothing new

Module 3 The competencies of a systems engineer

This module covers the personal aspect of systems engineering because the rarely mentioned biggest risk to system development is the use of personnel with poor or inappropriate competencies.

Contents

1. The five types of systems engineers and the states in the system development in which they should be used to avoid cost and schedule overruns.
2. A competency reference model for systems and software engineers to ensure the right type of systems engineer is used in each state of the System Development Process (SDP)
3. The little-known need for systems engineering and problem, implementation and solution domain knowledge
4. How to identify the qualities, knowledge and experience needed by junior, intermediate and advanced systems engineers in the various states of the System Lifecycle (SLC)

Additional video

• N/A

Module 4 Systems and the SLC

This module notes that situations arise in systems, products and processes are both systems and that systems development passes through several states of the SLC known as the SDP or sometimes as the systems engineering process.

Contents

1. The nature of systems.
2. Basic system behaviour.
3. Emergence.
4. Hierarchies of systems.
5. Functional view of a system.
6. A little-known template for a system which reduces complexity and simplifies system creation and operation.
7. Ways of creating systems for managing complexity.

Module 5 An introduction to managing risk and uncertainty in the SLC

This module introduces risk management focusing on risk prevention as well as the traditional risk mitigation

Contents

1. Events, risks and uncertainty.
2. The traditional and systems approaches to risk management.
3. Risk rectangles and why they should ever be used.
4. Risk profiles the benefits of using them.
5. Preventing risks in the SDP.
6. Managing uncertainty.
7. Risks based on technology.
8. Ways of estimating/measuring risks.
9. Primary and secondary risks and why secondary risks must be considered.
10. Contingencies and contingency plans.

Additional video

• N/A

Module 6 The Needs Identification State of the SDP

This module covers the most critical state in the SDP which is not mentioned in many systems engineering texts and courses.

Contents

1. The critical applied systems engineering tasks which systems and software engineers must perform in the needs identification state if the project is to have any chance to succeed.
2. The concept of operations (CONOPS) model and why it is critical to successful system development.
3. How to actually create a system.

Additional video

• N/A

Module 7 The Requirements State of the SDP

This module covers requirements, providing an overview of the problems (as well as corresponding solutions) posed by the need to collect well-written requirements and how to deal with poorly articulated requirements. The module also covered the much neglected Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEP) and how to create it.

Purpose

1. The critical applied systems engineering tasks which systems and software engineers must perform in the requirements identification stated.
2. A little-known way to capture poor requirements and convert them into well-written requirements.
3. An improved template for a requirement statement.
4. How to convert stakeholder needs into well-written requirements using some systems thinking tools.
5. How to minimize missing requirements using a mixture of generic and specific requirements.
6. Why a requirement must be more than just the statement, ‘the system shall’.
7. How the different mission and support requirements can provide greatest flexibility to designers.
8. Where and how requirements are used in the systems development process and some of the consequences of poorly written requirements.

Additional videos

• N/A

Module 8 The realization states of the SDP

This module covers the intermediate states of the SDP, rarely mentioned in other courses.

Contents

1. The role of systems engineers in the realization (design, construction and subsystem testing) states of the SLC.
2. The nature of the problems faced in the states.
3. The tools, methodologies and techniques available to solve those problems.
4. The critical applied systems engineering tasks which systems and software engineers must perform in these states.
5. Factors to consider and monitor in the design for performance, cost, reliability, integration, test, maintainability and safety.
6. How the best systems engineers perform problem-solving across subsystem boundaries.
7. Interface and change management.

Module 9 The System Integration State of the SDP

This module covers system integration covering what happens in the state and the prerequisites for successful system integration that must be performed in the earlier (upschedule) states of the SDP

Contents

1. The role of systems engineers in the System Integration State of the SDP.
2. The nature of the problems faced in the state.
3. The tools, methodologies and techniques available to solve those problems.
4. The critical applied systems engineering tasks which systems and software engineers must perform in these states.
5. Awareness of the factors involved in integration of components into a system.
6. Integration of a system into its adjacent systems.
7. Design for integration.
8. Problem solving across subsystem boundaries.

Module 10  The System Test and Evaluation State of the SDP

This module covers test and evaluation of the system as a whole as well as the prerequisites for successful subsystem testing that must be performed in the earlier (upschedule) states of the SDP

Contents

1. The role of systems engineers in the System Test and Evaluation State of the SDP.
2. The nature of the problems faced in the state.
3. The tools, methodologies and techniques available to solve those problems.
4. An awareness of the difference between test and evaluation, the need to build testing into both the system (product) and SDP (process).
5. The concepts behind Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E) Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V).

Module 11 The Operations and Maintenance State of the SLC

This module is rarely included in textbooks and courses, but is the state of the SLC in which a system spends most of is life. The state is characterized by updates and changes which must be managed or engineered as a system

Contents

1. The role of systems engineers in the handover transient, operations and maintenance states of the SLC.
2. The nature of the problems they face in the state.
3. The tools, methodologies and techniques available to solve those problems.
4. How the system will be handed over to the customer and how it should be operated and maintained by the customer.
5. An awareness of the factors involved in managing changes and upgrades, participants, and control of stated sequential system releases.
6. Review of iteration, recursiveness and phased builds.
7. Defects and defect disposition.
8. Change and change control.

Module 12 The Disposal State of the SLC

This module is rarely included in textbooks and courses

Contents

1. Alternative methods of disposal.
2. Considerations for disposal.
3. Project terminations and how to handle them effectively.

Module 13 Modeling and simulation

Contents

1. To provide a case study of developing a model (system) through the states of the SDP
2. To show the iterative nature of the problem-solving process in the SDC
3. To illustrate the decision-making process in system development
4. To show how the implementation domain can affect the realized system
5. To demonstrate the systems engineering approach to building a simulation
6. To illustrate necessity of the multi-disciplinary domain knowledge in probem, solutionand implementation domains
7. To demonstrate how applying holistic thinking when problem-solving is fundamental to systems engineering

Module 14 BONUS: Bringing systems engineering into an organization

Contents

• TBS

Module 15 Summary and closeout

This module summarizes the course emphasizing the main points of each module and how they built into a comprehensive body of knowledge

Contents

1. A summary and wrap up the course showing how:
   1. The modules linked together.
   2. The systems approach was used in systems engineering.
   3. The application of problem-solving in systems engineering.

Footnotes

This course was originally offered as “Systems Thinking and Beyond”.

The contents of the course is often changed to clarify the material based on student feedback as well as changes in the state of systems engineering. Accordingly, what is actually taught may be different to what is posted in this page. Lecture handout serial numbers are then updated in accordance with the configuration control standard.