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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

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Process - Artifact Paradigm

Process - Artifact Paradigm

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Process

Artifact

Tool Tool

Resource

Process=collection of individual tasks

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People don’t do processes, they

Think Discuss

Build Read

WriteDraw

Procrastinate

Feel Reflect

Learn

Argue

Produce

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What’s appropriatefor us humans?

Too complicated.Too mechanistic.Too American.

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Organization

Team

Artifact

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How do we account forthe non-process parts of Systems Engineering?

How do we engineer them?

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The answer:

Go East (of US)!

Humanistic Approach

to Knowledge

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Tacit Knowled

ge

Basho

ASHEN

SECI

David Snowden

Ikujiro Nonaka

Michael Polanyi

Nishida Kitarō

Concepts

ASHEN Model

13Snowden, D. 2000. Organic Knowledge Management: part I ,

The ASHEN model: an enabler of action.Knowledge Management. 3(7): pp.14-17.

Artifacts Interaction

Skills Heuristics

Natural Talent

Experience

Explicit Knowledge

Tacit Knowledge

SECI Model

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Ikujiro Nonaka and Noboru Konno, California Management Review, vol. 40, #3, 1998 "The Concept of ‘Ba’: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation" ,

The Concept of Ba

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Examples of Bas

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Preparation for design reviews(not the review shows)

Preparation for design reviews(not the review shows)

IPT discussionsIPT discussions

Impromptu walk-in meetingsImpromptu walk-in meetings

Informal gatherings and partiesInformal gatherings and parties

Combination in SE

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g

g

g

g oThe heart of SE processes

Information in, Information out

Systems Architecting

Writing Requirement Documents

Analyzing Test Information

Learn by analysis and synthesis of information

Externalization in SE

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Elicitation of Requirements

Articulation of Design Concepts

Meetings notes and action items

Test Reports

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i

ii

i

i

g

Learn by articulating in language

Socialization in SE

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i i

Learn by shared

experience

Living the user experience

Hanging out with the developers

Assembling test setups

Operating the system

Customer–on–site

Internalization in SE

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i

go

Learn by exercise

and practice

Learning requirements before architecting

Acquiring the “feeling of the system” before testing

Building the heuristics of “what is right”

Acquiring skills and experience

Managing by knowledge

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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

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"[In the "Glue" role] the systems engineer serves as a proactive troubleshooter, looking for problems and arran ging to prevent them … While the designers of the sub sys tems 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!

The Systems Integrator

System Integration Example

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SocializationHang with developers

Externalization

Joint creation of informal notes about “as build” description

CombinationCreate formal “as

build” docsDesign Integration

TestsRun and report formal

tests

InternalizationBuild, test,

feel and evaluate informally,

decide

Conclusions

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Systems Engineering is more than processes, documents, models and prototypes – it’s incessant knowledge flow

Most of the knowledge is tacit and not found 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

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Any answers?