An Early Attempt at a Core, Common Set of Loss‐Driven Systems Engineering Principles

Abstract

Principles articulate the basic concepts guiding a discipline. Michael Watson observed “Principles are accepted truths that apply throughout a discipline. These truths serve as a guide to the application of the discipline.” To paraphrase Watson: “loss driven” systems engineering principles are accepted truths applying throughout the loss driven systems engineering discipline, guiding its application.What might these principles be for loss driven systems engineering? A starting point is looking for commonality and similarities among principles previously articulated for safety, security, resilience, and critical infrastructure protection and recovery. Where core principles appear unique to a specialty, the questions become: is there something more fundamental, more abstract, ultimately unifying across specialties? Can re‐expressing these unique specialty principles transcend specialties?This paper summarizes background for core principles among loss driven specialties. This background results from a review process identifying obvious commonalities among principles. This review identifies “new” transcendent principles and presents a first draft of core principles for loss driven systems engineering. Once assessed, the review process itself proposes potential next steps for maturing the loss driven systems engineering principle set.