By David Long, Vitech President Just like simplicity, not all precision is helpful. Heresy? Not for engineers. Engineers are taught to use the appropriate degree of precision for the circumstance at hand. Unfortunately, as systems engineers, we too often forget those lessons. The quest for precision can lead us astray, …

The Siren, Edward Armitage, 1888 First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If anyone unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again . . . There is a great …

By David Long, Vitech President A good systems engineer working on a project should seek to suboptimize systems engineering. A heretical statement? Not really. In fact, the path to optimizing systems engineering lies in suboptimizing systems engineering. It may sound paradoxical, but it’s true. The purpose of systems engineering is …

By David Long, Vitech President There is no doubt that systems engineering is growing. It is growing in applicability as the degree of complication and complexity rises across many different application domains – aerospace and defense, transportation, automotive, energy, medical, consumer products, and more. It is growing in importance as …