The recent INCOSE International Symposium in Edinburgh, Scotland featured a challenging and thought-provoking keynote address by Professor Larry Leifer of Stanford University. Taking an unorthodox approach to engineering design, Professor Leifer challenged symposium delegates to incorporate thinking from the world of art and design into their engineering problem-solving processes. This …

There are two great miracles in systems engineering – where the requirements come from and how you get from requirements to implementation. Where requirements come from is a topic for later (it need not be a miracle or a mystery). As for moving from requirements to implementation, that requires a …

This 2 minute video captures and explains the main points of this blog post. “Now if you’re ready, Oysters dear, we can begin to feed.” Lewis Carroll, The Walrus and the Carpenter Oysters Rockefeller, oysters on the half shell, oyster stew, fried oysters . . . for the appreciative connoisseur, …

As individuals and organizations deploy model-based systems engineering, the unwary fall into several traps: starting too big (or too small), chasing standards, focusing purely on the tool (or technical) dimensions, and more. In an earlier blog, I discussed 7 classic errors or anti-patterns to avoid. As we look for positive …