Several years ago, there was an intriguing debate in the systems community. On one side was the majority of the community, emphasizing “systems engineering.” On the other side – almost in isolation – was MIT countering that it’s about the “engineering of systems.” At the time, I thought it was purely …

We have all seen some variant of the famous Sidney Harris cartoon – two people standing at the chalkboard, an incredibly complex series of equations or process flow on the left, a simplification or result on the right, and the words “then a miracle occurs” in the middle. It’s an …