The Systems Engineering Conundrum: Where is the ENGINEERING?

Abstract

Systems Engineering, as an emerging discipline was transformed from the Engineering of Systems in the early 1950's to focus on Managing the Development of Systems with a new Systems Management approach. The transformation was initiated to resolve conflicts between Engineering and Management paradigms that contributed to failures in post‐WWII complex system development and integration of new technologies. By today's standards, the transformation was a partial solution with unintended consequences, namely Systems Engineering's qualifications as an Engineering Discipline. … Where is the Engineering? To answer the question, we explore the SE Technical Competency Gap, what it is and how it evolved, explore its impact on the Engineering of Systems that contributes to project technical, cost, and schedule performance issues SE is intended to minimize, and illustrate how the lack of a core technical framework that defines its concepts, principles, and practices leads to the proliferation of misinformation by the uninformed. Ultimately, the SE global community has a conundrum – continue its unwitting Systems Management approach under the premise of SE … or … to institute corrective actions to … restore … SE technical core competency qualifications as a bonafide, maturing Engineering Discipline to where it should be today postures for the future.