The Seventh National Conference INCOSEIL 2013 Systems Thinking

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 1

Process - Artifact Paradigm 3

Process - Artifact Paradigm Resource Tool Process Tool Artifact Process= collection of individual tasks 4

People don’t do processes, they Build Draw Read Write Think Feel Produce Learn Argue Discuss Reflect Procrastinate 5

Too complicated. Too mechanistic. Too American. What’s appropriate for us humans? 7

Organization Team Artifact 9

How do we account for the non-process parts of Systems Engineering? How do we engineer them? 10

The answer: Go East (of US)! Humanistic Approach to Knowledge 11

Concepts Ikujiro Nonaka Tacit Knowledge SECI Michael Polanyi Basho Nishida Kitarō David Snowden ASHEN 12

ASHEN Model Explicit Knowledge Artifacts Interaction Tacit Knowledge Skills Heuristics Natural Talent Experience Snowden, D. 2000. Organic Knowledge Management: part I, The ASHEN model: an enabler of action. Knowledge Management. 3(7): pp. 14 -17. 13

SECI Model 14

The Concept of Ba 15

Examples of Bas Preparation for design reviews (not the review shows) IPT discussions Impromptu walk-in meetings Informal gatherings and parties 17

Combination in SE The heart of SE processes Information in, Information out Learn by analysis and synthesis of information Systems Architecting Writing Requirement Documents Analyzing Test Information 18

Externalization in SE Elicitation of Requirements Articulation Design Concepts Learn by articulating in language Meetings notes and action items Writing Test Reports 19

Socialization in SE Living the user experience i i Learn by shared experience Hanging out with the developers Assembling testing setups Operating the system in the tests Customer–on–site 20

Internalization in SE Learning requirements before architecting Learn by exercise and practice Acquiring the “feeling of the system” before testing Building the heuristics of “what is right” Acquiring skills and experience 21

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 22

The Systems Integrator "[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 temsstruggle 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! 23

System Integration Example Socialization Hang with developers Internalization Build, test, feel and evaluate informally, decide Externalization Joint creation of informal notes about “as build” description Combination Create formal “as build” docs Design Integration Tests Run and report formal tests 24

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 25

Any answers? 26