InsightPub Date : 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1002/inst.12557
Joshua Sutherland, Alfonso Lanza, Francesco Dazzi, Ken Cureton, Chandru Mirchandani
{"title":"Elegant Solutions to Complex Problems – Case Studies and Examples","authors":"Joshua Sutherland, Alfonso Lanza, Francesco Dazzi, Ken Cureton, Chandru Mirchandani","doi":"10.1002/inst.12557","DOIUrl":"10.1002/inst.12557","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>A range of experts present a series of short case studies and field examples where elegant solutions emerged to solve complex engineering challenges in network protocols, urban transport, and astrophysics. Their responses illustrate the importance of clarity of purpose and good architecture transforming intricate problem spaces into robust, enduring systems demonstrating that elegance is a core engineering principle, not an afterthought.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"28 4","pages":"62-63"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145038195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InsightPub Date : 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1002/inst.12549
Francesco Dazzi, Joshua Sutherland, Gary Smith, Alfonso Lanza, Ken Cureton, Dean Beale
{"title":"Complexity Definitions Guidance in Systems Engineering","authors":"Francesco Dazzi, Joshua Sutherland, Gary Smith, Alfonso Lanza, Ken Cureton, Dean Beale","doi":"10.1002/inst.12549","DOIUrl":"10.1002/inst.12549","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This article provides a brief guide addressing the inconsistent use of “complexity” and related terms across different disciplines and situations. Definition variability often leads to miscommunication, even within organizations like the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). This guide offers practical advice tailored for different audiences on how to effectively use and interpret “complexity” in transdisciplinary contexts. Rather than prescribing a single definition, it promotes a common understanding by illustrating definitional differences and providing techniques to clarify usage. This approach aims to enhance communication, and lay groundwork for a unified scientific basis for “complexity” within systems engineering.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"28 4","pages":"8-12"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145038198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InsightPub Date : 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1002/inst.12559
Joshua Sutherland, Alfonso Lanza, Kristin Giammarco, Michael Pennotti, Dov Dori, Louise Harney
{"title":"Elegant Solutions to Complex Problems – Perspectives and Practice","authors":"Joshua Sutherland, Alfonso Lanza, Kristin Giammarco, Michael Pennotti, Dov Dori, Louise Harney","doi":"10.1002/inst.12559","DOIUrl":"10.1002/inst.12559","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Experts provide their personal perspectives, conceptual frameworks, and behavioral insights that shape how systems engineers approach complex challenges to illuminate how elegance also emerges from how we think, frame, and engage with complexity.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"28 4","pages":"67-69"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145038111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InsightPub Date : 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1002/inst.12555
Michael Pennotti, David Rousseau, Peter Brook, Javier Calvo-Amodio
{"title":"On the Meaning, Purpose, and Value of Systems Engineering","authors":"Michael Pennotti, David Rousseau, Peter Brook, Javier Calvo-Amodio","doi":"10.1002/inst.12555","DOIUrl":"10.1002/inst.12555","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"28 4","pages":"43-46"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145038113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InsightPub Date : 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1002/inst.12558
Joshua Sutherland, Alfonso Lanza, Peter Brook, Alejandro Salado, Chandru Mirchandani
{"title":"Elegant Solutions to Complex Problems – Recommended Resources","authors":"Joshua Sutherland, Alfonso Lanza, Peter Brook, Alejandro Salado, Chandru Mirchandani","doi":"10.1002/inst.12558","DOIUrl":"10.1002/inst.12558","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>A range of experts provide guidance from foundational theories to emerging perspectives on what materials have helped them understand the field, presenting a curated set of books, papers, frameworks, and conversations that have helped systems engineers deepen their understanding of complexity and refine their ability to recognize—or design—elegant solutions.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"28 4","pages":"64-66"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145038110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InsightPub Date : 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1002/inst.12552
Rudolph Oosthuizen, Dean Beale, Francesco Dazzi, Andrew C Pickard, Dorothy McKinney, Kenneth Cureton, Eileen Patrice Arnold
{"title":"Understanding Complexity: Defining a Moving Target","authors":"Rudolph Oosthuizen, Dean Beale, Francesco Dazzi, Andrew C Pickard, Dorothy McKinney, Kenneth Cureton, Eileen Patrice Arnold","doi":"10.1002/inst.12552","DOIUrl":"10.1002/inst.12552","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Systems engineering has transformed its understanding and management of complexity over the past 25 years. This article traces the evolution by analyzing 121 publications from INCOSE's journal and symposium proceedings between 1997 and 2024 to explore how definitions of complexity have shifted from structural metrics to dynamic, context-dependent phenomena shaped by emergent behaviors, stakeholder diversity, and uncertainty. It highlights key distinctions between complicated and complex systems, emphasizing why this matters in design, risk management, and stakeholder engagement. By embracing ambiguity, iterative learning, and multidisciplinary collaboration, engineers can design systems that are resilient and responsive to disruption. The results also underscore the vital role of human factors, including decision-making, cognition, and organizational behavior. We need a mindset shift: success in modern systems engineering depends not on eliminating complexity but on understanding, navigating, and leveraging it to build sustainable, adaptable systems for a changing world.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"28 4","pages":"21-28"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145038200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InsightPub Date : 2025-07-07DOI: 10.1002/inst.12541
Sue Caskey, Adam Williams
{"title":"Governance and Resilience: A Holistic Approach to Systems Security in Complex and Chaotic Environments","authors":"Sue Caskey, Adam Williams","doi":"10.1002/inst.12541","DOIUrl":"10.1002/inst.12541","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>A systems governance approach emphasizes a holistic perspective that identifies and navigates the interdependencies and conflicts between security and operational needs. Governance is defined as a collection of metasystems that provide the necessary constraints and processes to support, steer, adapt, transform, and sustain a system (Keating et al. 2022). Utilizing the Cynefin framework, which distinguishes between simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic environments (Snowden and Boone 2007), the article highlights the challenges faced by nuclear power plants in predatory contexts and the importance of integrating security objectives into governance frameworks.</p>\u0000 <p>By incorporating security as a fundamental aspect of governance, the article underscores its significance for persistence, adaptation, and transformation in the face of uncertainty. Additionally, it introduces key heuristics of systems security, such as the importance of context, knowledge-based decision-making, and organization-specific sociological factors (Williams and Caskey 2024). Ultimately, this work provides valuable insights into enhancing resilient operations in complex environments by reinforcing the connection between effective governance and security in systems engineering.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"28 3","pages":"29-34"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144573345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InsightPub Date : 2025-07-07DOI: 10.1002/inst.12537
Rick Dove
{"title":"Attitudes","authors":"Rick Dove","doi":"10.1002/inst.12537","DOIUrl":"10.1002/inst.12537","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Digital controls and internet connectivity have fostered a hostile predatory environment for modern systems. Organized crime and nation state interests are naturally compelled to exploit these readily accessible opportunities for financial and political advantages. Systems engineering is being called upon to reorient its priorities accordingly. INCOSE's Future of Systems Engineering (FuSE) to realize the Systems Engineering Vision 2035 has a security-focused activity exploring what this reorientation might be. This article shares some of that thinking, exposes some issues in need of more thinking, and suggests why and how all systems engineers could and should be part of this thinking.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"28 3","pages":"8-10"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144573348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InsightPub Date : 2025-07-07DOI: 10.1002/inst.12538
Systems Security Working Group
{"title":"Using Systems Thinking to Advance Security in the Future of Systems Engineering (FuSE), a Progress Report","authors":"Systems Security Working Group","doi":"10.1002/inst.12538","DOIUrl":"10.1002/inst.12538","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The Security in the Future of Systems Engineering (FuSE) team has made significant progress since its launch to realize the INCOSE vision described in <i>Systems Engineering Vision 2035</i> (INCOSE 2021). The output products to date promote improved systems engineering practices to achieve security as a foundational perspective. The systems thinkers on this team have performed holistic analysis of current practices to expose existing anti-patterns and mental models that informed the transformation to future practices that can yield desired results and achieve the 2035 vision. Needs-oriented, loss-driven, capability-based analysis to define security strategies that become functional requirements promotes stakeholder alignment of the security vision and leads to effective security tactics and techniques that collectively achieve the security strategies. The result is a system that achieves functional perseverance in a hostile predatory environment. The work products completed so far and those in progress reflect our efforts to transition practices to a future where our systems are designed to achieve and sustain security as an intentional capability of the system throughout its lifecycle.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":13956,"journal":{"name":"Insight","volume":"28 3","pages":"11-14"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144573342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}