DigitalSE Logo

Systems Engineering Transformation Through Digital Engineering

Abstract

As system engineering (SE) attempts to address the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and ever-increasing system complexity, it is clear that a transformation is necessary that is supported by the same digital technologies. This chapter describes the systems trends that necessitate a transformation in SE. A lifecycle framework for understanding the challenges faced by SE is then presented. This is followed by an analysis of the gaps in the existing SE methods, processes, and tools, and a description of the areas, which need transformation and support through digital engineering. A list of eight digital capability areas is described, which enable this SE transformation. Finally, a narrative is presented, which describes a day in the life of a systems engineer in a digitally transformed world of systems engineering 2.0.


Leads

Jon Wade

University of California, San Diego

Publications

  1. Boehm, B. and Turner, R. (2003). Balancing Agility and Discipline. Addison Wesley.

  2. Boyd, J. (1976). Destruction and Creation (PDF). U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

  3. Carrigy, A., Colbert, E., Componation, P. et al. (2009). Evaluation of Systems Engineering Methods, Processes and Tools on Department of Defense and Intelligence Community Programs. SERC Phase 1 Technical Report (A013).

  4. Kasparov, G. (2017). On AI, Chess, and the Future of Creativity (Ep. 22). Conversations with Tyler. https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/garry-kasparov-tyler-cowen-chess-iq-ai-putin-3bf28baf4dba

  5. Lencioni, P. (2002). Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. New York: Jossey-Bass.

  6. McChrystal, G.S.A., Silverman, D., Collins, T., and Fussell, C. (2015). Team of Teams. Portfolio Penguin.

  7. Rotman, D. (2020). We’re not prepared for the end of Moore’s Law. MIT Technology Review 123 (1).

  8. Schwab, K. (2015). The Fourth Industrial Revolution – what it means and how to respond. Foreign Affairs. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/.

  9. Snowden, D.J. and Boone, M.E. (2007). A leader’s framework for decision making. Harvard Business Review 85 (11): 68–76. PMID 18159787.

  10. Stevens, R. (2008). Profiling complex systems. 2008 2nd Annual IEEE Systems Conference, Montreal, QC, Canada, pp. 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1109/SYSTEMS.2008.4519017.

  11. Wade, J., Madni, A., Neill, C. et al. (2010). Development of 3-Year Roadmap to Transform the Discipline of Systems Engineering. Final Technical Report – SERC-2009-TR-006.

  12. Wade, J., Madni, A., and Neill, C. (2011). An integrated, modular research architecture for the transformation of systems engineering. In Proceedings of the 2011 Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER), Redondo Beach, CA (15–16 April), Vol. 9, Los Angeles, CA.

  13. Wade, J., Buenfil, J., and Collopy, P. (2020). A systems engineering approach for artificial intelligence: inspired by the VLSI revolution of mead and conway. Insight 23 (1): 41–47.

  14. Wymore, A. W. (2004). Contributions to the mathematical foundations of systems science and systems engineering. Systems Movement: Autobiographical Retrospectives. The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.

SERC Logo

The Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) was established in the Fall of 2008 as a government-designated University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). The SERC has produced 15 years of research, focused on an updated systems engineering toolkit (methods, tools, and practices) for the complex cyber-physical systems of today and tomorrow.


Follow us on

LinkedIn