1. Knowledge Perspective on Systems Engineering
The Seventh National Conference INCOSE_IL 2013
Systems Thinking Session
Knowledge Perspective
on Systems Engineering
Sergey Tozik
Bernard M. Gordon Center for Systems Engineering, Technion

2. Process - Artifact Paradigm

3. Process - Artifact Paradigm
Resource
Process
Tool
Tool
Artifact
Process= collection of individual tasks

4. People don’t do processes, they
Build
Read
Draw
Write
Think
Discuss
Learn
Feel
Reflect
Argue
Produce
Procrastinate

5. Too complicated.
Too mechanistic.
Too American.
What’s appropriate for us humans?

6. Organization
Team
Artifact

7. How do we account for the non-process parts of Systems Engineering?
How do we engineer them?

8. The answer: Go East (of US)! Humanistic Approach to Knowledge

9. Concepts Tacit Knowledge Basho ASHEN SECI Michael Polanyi
Ikujiro Nonaka
Nishida Kitarō
David Snowden

10. Snowden, D. 2000. Organic Knowledge Management: part I,
ASHEN Model
Explicit Knowledge
Artifacts
Interaction
Tacit Knowledge
Skills
Heuristics
Natural Talent
Experience
Snowden, D Organic Knowledge Management: part I,
The ASHEN model: an enabler of action. Knowledge Management. 3(7): pp

11. SECI Model

12. The Concept of Ba

13. Examples of Bas Preparation for design reviews (not the review shows)
IPT discussions
Impromptu walk-in meetings
Informal gatherings and parties

14. Learn by analysis and synthesis of information
Combination in SE
The heart of SE processes
Information in, Information out
Systems Architecting
Writing Requirement Documents
Analyzing Test Information
Learn by analysis and synthesis of information

15. Learn by articulating in language
Externalization in SE
Elicitation of Requirements
Articulation Design Concepts
Meetings notes and action items
Writing Test Reports
Learn by articulating in language

16. Learn by shared experience
Socialization in SE
Living the user experience
Hanging out with the developers
Assembling testing setups
Operating the system in the tests
Customer–on–site i i
Learn by shared experience

17. Learn by exercise and practice
Internalization in SE
Learning requirements before architecting
Acquiring the “feeling of the system” before testing
Building the heuristics of “what is right”
Acquiring skills and experience
Learn by exercise and practice

18. Managing by knowledge SE as creator of Bas
Organize discussions – not meetings
Walk around, seek and create impromptu bas
Create virtual learning spaces (Sharepoint?)
Provide ample space for discourse and dissent
SE as knowledge broker and knowledge integrator
Don’t require documentation, document by yourself!
Provide “externalization services”
Learn in one place, teach in another
Listen (and look) to yourself and to others
What you see, hear and feel is as good as documents
Right intuition are a product of quality internalization

19. Don’t do this by sitting in the office!
The Systems Integrator
"[In the "Glue" role] the systems engineer serves as a proactive troubleshooter, looking for problems and arran­ging to prevent them … While the designers of the sub­sys­tems struggle to make their subsystems do what they are supposed to, the Glue systems engineer is watching to ensure that each subsystem is not going to interfere with the others.“
Sarah A. Sheard, 2000
Don’t do this by sitting in the office!

20. System Integration Example
Socialization Hang with developers
Externalization Joint creation of informal notes about “as build” description
Combination Create formal “as build” docs Design Integration Tests Run and report formal tests
Internalization Build, test, feel and evaluate informally, decide

21. Conclusions
Systems Engineering is more than processes, documents, models and prototypes – it’s incessant knowledge flow
Most of the knowledge is tacit and not in artifacts – managing this knowledge is critical for the success
Systems engineer has to create “learning spaces” (Bas) in order to energize knowledge creation and flow
Systems engineer has to act as a “knowledge broker” when the Ba can’t be created in time
Learning is the most important skill for SEs

22. Any answers?