3.3.2 Systems Decision Making Failures in Replacing the World Trade Center

Abstract

AbstractThis paper is my senior honors project for the Department of Systems Engineering at West Point. Dr. Gregory Parnell, Professor of Systems Engineering at West Point, is my advisor. This paper directly addresses multiple topics of interest of the symposium including system safety and security, managing environmental impacts, use of human resources, and continuous systems development.This paper examines, from a system engineer's perspective, why six years after 9/11 no above ground construction on the Freedom Tower has occurred and how systems engineering should have been used to start rebuilding faster and with a better design. Three issues impeded the development of the Freedom Tower. First, battles for decision making authority continually halted the progress of the project. Second, the exclusion of stakeholders upset many who felt they should have had a say in the rebuilding process. Third, the decision makers did not always consider the values and objectives of the stakeholders. An adequate understanding of stakeholder values would have improved the process of replacing the World Trade Center.