Agile Systems Engineering – Eight Core Aspects

Abstract

Agile engineering, of any kind, employs strategies for designing, building, sustaining, and evolving purpose‐fulfilling creations when knowledge is uncertain and operational environments are dynamic. Strategies address what needs to be accomplished and why, without constraints or directions on how. How those strategies manifest as operational methods depends upon the engineering context. For instance, though single‐domain software engineering is different than multi‐domain systems engineering, both share the same goals and strategies. This article describes eight agility‐supporting strategic aspects with application discussions and examples relevant to systems engineering and exposes common myths and misunderstandings. Each of the eight aspects can individually improve capability to deal with uncertain knowledge and dynamic environments.