{"title":"Maps or Itineraries? A Systems Engineering Insight from Ancient Navigators","authors":"William D. Schindel","doi":"10.1002/inst.12497","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n <p>Processes and procedures are the heart of current descriptions of systems engineering. The “vee diagram,” ISO 15288, the INCOSE <i>Systems Engineering Handbook,</i> and enterprise-specific business process models focus attention on process and procedure. However, there is a non-procedural way to view systems engineering. This approach is to describe the configuration space “navigated” by systems engineering, and what is meant by system trajectories in that space, traveled during system life cycles. This sounds abstract because we have lacked explicit maps necessary to describe this configuration space. We understand concrete steps of a procedure, so we focus there. But where do these steps take us? And what does “where” mean in this context? Clues are found in recent discoveries about ancient navigation, as well as later development of mathematics and physics. This paper, part I of a case for stronger model-based systems engineering (MBSE) semantics, focuses on the underlying configuration space inherent to systems.</p>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"27 4","pages":"9-16"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Insight","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/inst.12497","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"INSTRUMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Processes and procedures are the heart of current descriptions of systems engineering. The “vee diagram,” ISO 15288, the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, and enterprise-specific business process models focus attention on process and procedure. However, there is a non-procedural way to view systems engineering. This approach is to describe the configuration space “navigated” by systems engineering, and what is meant by system trajectories in that space, traveled during system life cycles. This sounds abstract because we have lacked explicit maps necessary to describe this configuration space. We understand concrete steps of a procedure, so we focus there. But where do these steps take us? And what does “where” mean in this context? Clues are found in recent discoveries about ancient navigation, as well as later development of mathematics and physics. This paper, part I of a case for stronger model-based systems engineering (MBSE) semantics, focuses on the underlying configuration space inherent to systems.
期刊介绍:
Official Journal of The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing - includes original research and devlopment papers, technical and scientific reviews and case studies in the fields of NDT and CM.