Old Dogs and New Tricks...

As my INCOSE President tenure comes to an end, it prompts a number of thoughts about the systems culture, many of which are related to systems education. As you know, my 'day job' is running the MIT System Design and Management Program, which prepares experienced technical professionals to take leadership positions in system and product development environments. One of they key developments profoundly needed by the systems engineering profession and advanced through a collaboration between INCOSE and the Object Management Group (OMG) is the concept of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), which helps users and designers deal with the ever-growing complexity of systems and to explore expected system behaviors in advance of committing to a single design option. Using MBSE requires some ability to think at the 'meta' (abstract/conceptual) level, and some familiarity with SySML notation, but greatly enhances early design capabilities, and allows many more permutations of system design to be explored before one is selected. So what's the problem?

Some of our 'grey beard' senior systems engineers are not comfortable with the new methodology, and are not encouraging its use on 'their' projects--we seem to have created a systems generation gap. While the use of model based systems engineering methods is still developing, results that INCOSE and OMG modelers have achieved so far point to great value in the methodology, and, frankly, without it, we will likely be slowed in design and development of new systems, which we can ill afford. In the system design and management curriculum at MIT, we have added model based development methods to two core courses. From my recent INCOSE experience, it seems obvious that industry needs to offer (in house) or sponsor attendance (externally) to some courses on MBSE to bring the 'old dogs' into the present, and allow the respected grey beards to lead in the MBSE revolution, rather than resist it.

Systems: Philosophical and Intellectual Viewpoints

This is the start of what I hope will be an active dialog on systems engineering, engineering education, professional organizations and trends in the very broad world of systems. I post from several 'identities', or viewpoints:

• I am the current President (and a 15-year member) of the International Council on Systems Engineering--this is an organization with a rich systems culture, composed of about 7,000 members in 26 countries, and INCOSE provides a window into the evolving systems engineering world and the latest methods and practices.
  
  
• Senior Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division--MIT ESD is an academic community engaged in systems research in a context of broader intellectual boundaries, combining engineering, the social sciences and management science to tackle some of the biggest challenges in our society--it is an exciting and stimulating place to explore the future of systems and systems methodologies.
  
  
• Director, Systems Design and Management program at MIT, a career compatible master's program offered jointly by the MIT School of Engineering ang the Sloan School of Management. Our average student is in their 30s, with 8-10+ years of experience, and it is a privilege to teach and provide a temporary home for bright, mid-career professionals as they soak in the intellectual soup of MIT.

These viewpoints and experiences stimulate a broad range of interests, ideas and musings about the future of systems and the methods and processes used to understand and interact with them in all their forms.

Join me and become an active voice in the systems conversation!