Major Challenges Facing the Practising Systems Engineer

Support for Team Development Today's industry requires that teams of experts from multiple disciplines/domains work together on the solution of complex problems (e.g., integrated product teams (IPTs)). These teams may be geographically dispersed and mobile. We need to maintain a shared view of the project objectives, and at the same time focus on specific tasks. See Figure 2. Figure 1. Elements of Team-Based Development A key challenge is avoiding communication and interpretation problems -- everyone needs to know what they are supposed to be working on, and when it's due! Extended Project Duration In most large systems engineering projects, the team working on a project at its inception has probably retired before the project is completed. NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Project: 20-25 year duration. Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter: 30 year duration. Methodologies and tools are needed for the capture of knowledge (i.e., understanding of a problem domain; pathway of decision making) so that all is not lost when an employee leaves.

Section 3-1: April, 2003.