6.4.1 The Hitchins‐Kasser‐Massie (HKM) Framework for Systems Engineering

Abstract

George Friedman (Friedman, 2006) called for the development of a grand unified theory of systems engineering (GUTSE) echoing (Hill and Warfield, 1972) who wrote “development of a theory of systems engineering that will be broadly accepted is much to be desired.” Taking up the spirit of the challenge, this paper applies systems thinking to systems engineering to propose a framework that can serve as a vital element in formalizing the discipline of systems engineering and potentially as a platform for developing such a theory. This paper focuses on what systems engineers do, and builds on past research and success. Documenting research using an object‐oriented approach in a creative and innovative manner it discusses the evolution of a proposed framework for systems engineering that meets or shows promise of meeting the following four requirements (Kasser, 2006): The framework shall provide an understanding of why systems engineers can't agree on their roles and activities. The framework shall provide an understanding of the reasons for the overlap between systems engineering and management. The framework shall provide a way to cope with complexity. The framework shall enable the lowering of the cost of doing work by at least an order of magnitude. The framework is based on a combination of the Hitchins' five‐layer representation of systems engineering (Hitchins, 2000) extended by Kasser and Massie over the systems lifecycle phases (Kasser and Massie, 2001) coupled with Shenhar and Bonen's taxonomy of systems based on technological uncertainty (risk) (Shenhar and Bonen, 1997).

3.4.2 Research on a Framework for Selecting and Applying Systems Engineering Tools for Australian Small and Medium Enterprises – II

“…In addition, nine interviews with overseas SMEs, primes and Defence personnel from the United States, Europe and Asia were also conducted for comparison and lesson learnt purposes. Table 4 contains the descriptive statistics of the 23 Australian SMEs interviewed, their categories, the nature of their work with Defence, their sizes, the mapping of their systems engineering levels and systems development life cycle (SDLC) phases in which they engage to the appropriate cells in the Hitchins-KasserMassie (HKM) framework (Kasser and Massie 2001;Kasser 2007a), the percentage of their defence contracts, and the existence of their SE capabilities (in term of SE process and tools they apply). Categorisation.…”

“…This is the mapping of the interviewed SMEs to specific areas in the HKM framework (Kasser and Massie 2001;Kasser 2007a) as depicted in Figure 2. In Table 4, the numbers [1] and [2] thus refer to the product and system layers of systems engineering, respectively, and the letters (A, B, C ...) to the phases of the SDLC.…”

2.4.2 Principled systems engineering for the planet

“…First reason for this is that the problems to which systems engineering is applied can be classified as 'wicked' problems. Kasser (2007) provides a summary of what is meant by wicked problems before providing yet another framework for systems engineering using a subset of Table 1 activities mapped against the Hitchins layers 12 . He reports on an informal survey against the themes of the published papers of the INCOSE annual symposium and finds also that despite increasing attention, the fifth Hitchins layer, socio-economic systems, was the least addressed theme.…”

1.4.3 A Sustainable Energy Economy: The Next Challenge for Systems Engineers

“…As mentioned in the introduction, there are real risks of energy resource shortages, and perhaps climate changes, which could have staggering impacts on the global economy if a rapid transition to a stable energy supply is not made One other comparison is to consider the nature of systems engineering that will be required for an energy transformation, in comparison to other large programs of recent years. In The Hitchins-Kasser-Massie (HKM) Framework for Systems Engineering (Kasser, 2007), the concept of a five-layer model of systems engineering is proposed; the layers, from top to bottom, are: socioeconomic, supply chain, business, system, and product. Kasser's paper goes on to describe how various activities work at various levels of the framework, from military platforms that are focused on the system level to information systems that touch all but the top level.…”