Speaking in Tongues: The Systems Engineering Challenge

Abstract

AbstractThe Hebrew Scriptures tell the well‐known story of the construction of the tower of Babel. That project is easily begun using the single language common to all the people of the time.But in response to the plan to build a tower to the gates of heaven, God plants different languages among the builders frustrating their ability to communicate. This effectively halts the project and ends in the dispersal of the peoples to the “ends of the earth.”The ancient story carries a warning for our attempts to broaden the practice of systems engineering beyond the familiar bounds of defense and aerospace. Unlike the tower builders whose acquired problems halted their progress after a successful start, twenty‐first century systems engineers are severely language‐challenged from the outset. The demands of new domains involve the languages of diverse stakeholders and subject‐matter experts. The demands of concurrent engineering involve communicating with a variety of disciplines with their own models, methods and languages.This paper explores the challenges posed by the diversity of languages outside the usual market space and suggests possible solutions for them.