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 …

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 …

In 1839, Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote in his play Richelieu, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” In this, Bulwer-Lytton meant to say that communicating thoughts was more powerful in effecting change than committing acts of violence through war. But might there be something more powerful than the pen? Systems engineers …

(This is Part I of a two-part series. The second post in this series is: Is there a systems engineering silver bullet? Part II: (Not) Reinventing the Wheel.) Is there a systems engineering silver bullet that ensures mission, program, or project design success? As much as we would like to …