Systems Thinking and Product Lifecycle

Question 1

The main point of systems thinking

Answer 1

Looking at the big picture: considering all the external systems and organizations that your system will need to rely on

Need to consider every phase of the lifecycle

AND you need to consider all of the systems upon which your system must rely in each phase of that lifecycle

Question 2

System Scope

Answer 2

Defines what is actually included in the hardware

• It is more than just the hardware you are building. It includes all the external systems on which that hardware depends to actually meet the need

Question 3

“Atomic Parts”

Answer 3

The lowest useful level of decomposition of your system

Question 4

Phases of Critical Thinking on Systems Engineering Projects

Answer 4

1) Purpose
2) Problem
3) Assumptions
4) View
5) Data
6) Concepts
7) Conclusions
8) Implications
9) Iterate

Question 5

“Purpose” phase in systems thinking

Answer 5

Answers “so what”/”Why are we here” questions

Often involves outlining and refining objectives

*It is important to revisit this step to make sure that you are actually moving in the right direction (it’s easy to get bogged down in a particular

Question 6

“Problem” phase in Systems Thinking

Answer 6

Involves identifying all of the technical challenges involved in your problem space and your solution space

Common Examples: Material challenges, Control Challenges, Design Challenges

Question 7

“Assumptions” phase in Systems Thinking

Answer 7

• Clearly identify assumptions and determine whether they are justifiable
• Consider how your assumptions are shaping your point of view
• Carefully enumerate explicit and implicit assumptions

*This is VERY closely related to RISK

Question 8

Risk in Systems Thinking

Question 9

Explicit Assumptions

Question 10

Implicit Assumptions

Question 11

“View” phase in Systems Thinking

Answer 11

• Need to establish your point of view
• Then you should look at it from the POV of each of your customers (What are their interests/objectives/agendas?)
• Need to look at alternative points of view
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each point of view
  -Stive to be fair minded when evaluating these different points of view

Question 12

“Data” phase in Systems Thinking

Answer 12

• Restricts you claims to those that are supported by the data you have
• Actively search for information that OPPOSES your position
• Make sure that all information is clear, accurate, and relevant to the question at hand

*Put that data into context when/how/where was it collected

• Opinions that are informed by data are the only opinions that matter

Question 13

Systems thinking perspective on rejecting outliers

Answer 13

Need to at least try to come up with an explanation for your outlier before you remove it from your dataset.
- Sometimes the outliers can be indicative of a problem (or that a risk is more probable than you anticipated)

Don’t just reject data, you need to understand why you are rejecting that data
- Only reject data if you can do so based on agreed upon concepts.
- Define the criteria for deleting data early in your process (before you collect the data)

You MUST be able to justify why you are deleting/rejecting your data

Do you have a documented rationale?

Is that rationale based in fact or opinion?

Question 14

“Concepts” phase in Systems Thinking

Answer 14

Concepts and data go hand-in-hand (your concepts provide the basis on which )

Concepts are evaluated similarly to viewpoints:
1) Identify the key concepts and explain them clearly
2) Consider alternative concepts or alternative definitions to concepts
3) Make sure you are using concepts with care and precision (don’t be afraid to re-evaluate the concepts you are using if you find evidence or a highly credible opinion that contradicts your results)

Question 15

“Implications” phase in Systems Thinking

Answer 15

Helps tie your results to the “Purpose”

Are the implications of your results consistent with the objectives

Any inconsistencies between the potential implications and the objectives may indicate risks that you might not have considered

Question 16

“Iterating” phase in Systems Thinking

Question 17

System Thinking of “Opinions”

Answer 17

No one cares about your opinion

People care about two things:
1) What you can prove
2) Highly credible opinions, result of expert level education and/or extensive experience/accomplishments

Question 18

Resolving conflict between extraordinary evidence and highly credible opinions

Answer 18

The very conflict implies that you need to revisit the CONCEPTS and ASSUMPTIONS that you used to analyze the data

Question 19

Product lifecycle

Answer 19

• Every system in existence falls somewhere in this sequence of steps
• A good systems engineer plans for each of these lifecycle stages

Question 20

“System Context”

Question 21

“Supporting Environment”

Question 22

“Operational Environment”

Question 23

“Operational Environment” v. “Supporting Environment”

Question 24

Operating Environment

Question 25

“Operational Environment” v. “Operating Environment”

Question 26

System of Interest (SOI)

Answer 26

The actual hardware you are building

It must interact with “Enabling Systems” (other pieces of hardware outside the SOI) in order to accomplish the mission.

Question 27

Enabling Systems

Answer 27

Systems outside the SOI. The SOI must interface with them in order to accomplish the mission.