In late October, I attended the National Defense Industry Association Systems Engineering Conference, held in Springfield, Virginia. The conference covers a wide spectrum of system engineering topics, primarily supporting the Department of Defense, but also in support of other federal agencies. There were many interesting topics and discussions over the …

The world of systems engineering is facing a revolution. Complexity and scarcity are converging to create a set of problems not susceptible to solution in the “normal” state of systems engineering. Problems are becoming more complex and are demanding more complex solutions. At the same time, resources to be applied …

Recently, I’ve heard organizations take the position that systems engineering is an unnecessary expense, and that engineering efforts should push directly to mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and software engineering. This philosophy espouses that problems will be corrected during the integration and testing phases of a project or program. It says …

As organizations expand their scope and look beyond model-based systems engineering (MBSE) to model-based engineering, digital thread, or digital engineering, there is a common refrain. Over and over again, organizations speak of pursuing integrated models. Integration is certainly a step forward from disjointed, but integration alone is not enough. If …