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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
i
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?
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