Engineering Complicated Systems Still Needs Systems Engineering and Thinking

Abstract

AbstractIn recent years there has been a totally valid move in Systems Engineering circles to consider and focus on capability / complex systems (of systems). This is important as the world is getting more inter‐connected and the consequences of undesired emergence more significant. Unfortunately this has led to a “marginalization” of (simply) complicated systems, which were the bedrock of Systems Engineering practice. Whilst practice obviously needs to adjust when the system of interest is complex, the fundamental principles still apply and the Systems Engineering profession must not simply abandon consideration of complicated systems. This paper is intended to act as a reminder of how important the application of Systems Engineering is to complicated systems.