It has been widely said that, “managers do things right; leaders do the right thing.” Stephen Covey tied a more vivid picture to the concept when he observed, “management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” It is …

Why use a “model-based” approach? What advantage is there to be gained from this approach? Let’s begin by noting that all systems engineering is model-based. It isn’t possible to think of, discuss, or design systems without using a model. The concept of the system, its functions and parts must be …

May I tell you a story about someone I met at this year’s INCOSE conference? This is a true story. I took a few minutes away from the Vitech booth to grab some coffee. As I was trying to get the last few drops of coffee from the urn, a …

Why systems engineering? How can that help? Isn’t it enough to let the engineering disciplines do their work and then put the project together? Systems engineering takes a systems view of the design. It provides more than a simple connection of disparate parts. Systems engineering looks at three systems – …