Web-based Systems Engineering Training

Lessons Learned from Company XYZ

What did we observe and learn from our training classes at XYZ? Systems engineering is a team activity -- training needs to support multiple viewpoints, levels of experience, and backgrounds. Systems engineering processes make use of many different entity types (e.g., primary and derived requirements; traceability links; various models of system behavior and system structure), sometimes connected in complicated ways. Training materials are linear -- but systems concepts are best organized into a variety of architectures. See the adjacent figure. Too many pages! Too many links! Readers feel overwhelmed. They jump around material and gloss over content rather than learning it. Students need to see how new systems engineering concepts can be applied to applications they are familiar with. (i.e., if you're at a company that makes trains, you need a case study on trains). Challenge Need to find ways of using web technology to enhance quality of learning. Otherwise, whole exercise is a waste of time. How to work with XYZ's businesses to create business-specific case studies?

Figure : Architecture of Training Material Contents

Section 3-3: November, 2001.