At its recent International Symposium the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) released its Systems Engineering Vision 2025 report titled aptly “A World In Motion.” This document is a bold and forward-thinking vision of an exciting future. On the surface it appears innocuous enough. However, it is only on close …

“Enjoy the deep cleansing power of (fill in the product name). Get your face really clean with (fill in the product name). Tired of unsightly blackheads? Wash them away with the scrubbing power of (fill in the product name).” A number of skin care products advertise their ability to open …

In thinking about systems engineering we often set up a framework in which engineering receives a much stronger emphasis than the system aspects of the discipline. The INCOSE definition of systems engineering sets it apart from other engineering disciplines. In part it calls systems engineering, “. . . an engineering …

In the systems engineering world we talk extensively about models. For those discussions, we adopt the aspects of the conventional definition of the word “model.” Although the specific wording of the definitions may vary, models are “representations” of existing or proposed realities. Many representations technically meet the definitions of models. …