Communication is the sine qua non of culture and collaboration. Despite its importance, it is often done reflexively with little conscious thought. Humans tend to use language loosely and in the company of a large number of assumptions about what others may understand. But, the task of language is to …

Several times a year, my wife and I pack up the truck with beehives, enormous pieces of honeycomb, apiarist’s tools and a white jumpsuit complete with veils and hats, and head to our local school. There, I do a beekeeping class for hundreds of elementary age kids ranging from 4 …

We often talk about understanding the three systems involved in the design space: the system under design, the context system, and the designing system. These three systems are depicted in Figure 1 from Vitech’s MBSE Primer, shown below. As the illustration makes clear, not only does the design team need …

By David Long, Vitech President “The biggest errors are made on day one.” Sadly, those involved in systems engineering live this every day, but not necessarily in the manner we think. Though we strive to avoid this pitfall and address it in the systems we develop, the very way we …