Shaping Method Ecosystems - Structured Implementation of Systems Engineering in Industrial Practice

Inkermann, David

doi:10.1017/pds.2021.525

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Methods are used within the procedure of the development process and are to be understood as a prescription for performing individual steps in a targeted and efficient manner. A Method EcoSystem is defined as a system of methods embedded in an organization in which different design methods are used together and in which users can adapt and combine different methods according to their specific tasks (Inkermann, 2021). Evidence from both engineering design and prevention science suggests that method content and its relationship to the 5 factors -method use, context, design goals, information artifacts, and design outcomes -influence performance, especially when combined with continuous a structured reflection (Paulsen et al, 2020).…”

Section: Methods Ecosystem -Product Development As a Socio-technical ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By providing a Reflection Canvas we focus on a strucutred process of reflection and take into account the awareness and the analysis activity in three essential reflection dimensions, namely social, process, and goal. In order to specifically investigate engineering design processes as a socio-technical system (Paulsen et al, 2020), we consider the entire Method EcoSystem (Inkermann, 2021) for planning reflection activities. The proposed Reflection Canvas is provided as a reflection tool for optimizing processes in EP.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reflection Canvas – An Approach to Structure Reflection Activities in Engineering Design

Ammersdörfer¹,

Tartler²,

Kauffeld³

et al. 2022

How Product and Manufacturing Design Enable Sustainable Companies and Societies

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Digitalisation affects all areas of organisations including processes, methods, tools, roles, or information flows and results in frequent changes with short intervals. In engineering projects (EP), new methods, and process improvement are important. Reflection, as a dynamic process between consciousness and activities (Jobst et al., 2020), has proven to enhance processes by offering benefits for team performance, team innovation and team effectiveness. In this paper, reflection is not aimed only at the solution but at the structured action and thus an active participation process of action. However, despite the high relevance and ongoing discussion about agility in engineering design, reflection as an agile method is rarely established in EP. While a plenty of reflection methods is described in the literature, only a few consider the entire Method EcoSystem (i.e. method use, context, design goals, information artifacts, and design outcomes) relevant when adapting and improving EP. To address the analysis and adaption of methods and design processes within existing Method EcoSystems, this paper considers the objects and process of reflection form an engineering point of view. Following a framework established in earlier work, a Reflection Canvas is proposed as a tool to raise awareness and structure and support reflection activities to implement new methods, adapt processes and improve collaboration in EP. Therefore, the analysis reflects on the tactical (development team) and operational (development team member) level and focusses on the three reflection dimensions social, process and goal. To assess the quality of the approach, we subjected it to a first practical test. The proposed canvas was evaluated to be helpful. On the one hand, the results illustrate the relevance of structured reflection in organisations. On the other hand, support for planning (e.g. in documentation or clarification of responsibilities) for implementation in everyday work is given.

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Section: Methods Ecosystem -Product Development As a Socio-technical ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflection Canvas – An Approach to Structure Reflection Activities in Engineering Design

Ammersdörfer¹,

Tartler²,

Kauffeld³

et al. 2022

How Product and Manufacturing Design Enable Sustainable Companies and Societies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This may include specifications of how information is to be shown, what information is to be used as inputs to the method, what tools are to be used, what actions are to be performed and how, and how the task should be decomposed and how actions should be sequenced." Inkermann (2021) adds the term principle to highlight the core ideas underlying the structure of a process or method. Due to the high diversity of situations in the development context, many development methods (c.f.…”

Section: Methods In Product Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Dumitrescu et al, 2021) Companies are responding by improving their engineering departments by introducing agile and SE methods (Atzberger et al, 2020). To highlight method implementation and adaptation challenges in existing organizations, Inkermann (2021) and Gericke et al (2020) propose the term Method EcoSystem. A Method EcoSystem is defined as a system of methods embedded in an organization in which different design variants are shared and in which users can adapt and combine different methods depending on the development task (Inkermann, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To highlight method implementation and adaptation challenges in existing organizations, Inkermann (2021) and Gericke et al (2020) propose the term Method EcoSystem. A Method EcoSystem is defined as a system of methods embedded in an organization in which different design variants are shared and in which users can adapt and combine different methods depending on the development task (Inkermann, 2021). This results in an increased need for a detailed analysis of organizational structures and processes to identify improvements and to introduce new methods or adapt existing ones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Access Logics for Situation-Appropriate Selection and Introduction of Methods in Engineering Design

Ammersdörfer¹,

Müller²,

Heimicke³

et al. 2022

How Product and Manufacturing Design Enable Sustainable Companies and Societies

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Development methods from Systems Engineering (SE) or agile product development support companies in dealing with current challenges like increased interaction of subsystems and multidisciplinary. However, for many companies, these methods and approaches are still unfamiliar. Developers are often unaware of a suitable development method. Therefore, guides are used to find the appropriate methods and assist their application to the company's specific problems. The main shortcoming of existing guides is that they rely heavily on fixed activities and process-maturity levels and give little attention to the specific situation of the application context. Consequently, methods often miss the actual demand and do not trigger the hoped-for process improvements. The objective of this research is to improve the access to development methods by assisting in clarifying the problem situation and interactions to process activities be addressed when selection methods. The essential goal is to increase the contextual awareness required to identify and implement suitable development methods. To characterize different engineering activities, goals, variables, and key performance indicators were identified based on a literature review. These elements were used in two different projects to develop access logics which are used to select the methods. The results of this short-term research are an online guide and a simulation game to develop an awareness of development methods and enable developers to identify methods according to their specific context information. Within the online guide, the link between goals and variables, a series of predefined questions and the characteristics of the goals, and a set of described methods are used to guide the user to his individual method selection with the help of interactive question trees. Within the simulation game, a set of variables is used to characterize each method, and interactions with process activities, tools, and roles are given. Based on a simulation model effectivity and impact of the methods are indicated. It becomes possible to raise awareness for the use of the method and suggest methods that fit the situation at hand by capturing (online guide) and simulating (simulation game) the context for method application.

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Mbse Within the Engineering Design Community – An Exploratory Study

et al. 2023

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Objective of this contribution is to present the use of Model-based Systems Engineering within the engineering design community. Based on a differentiation between SE and MBSE, the definition of three core MBSE elements, namely modelling method, modelling language, and modelling tool as well as the three major aspects of a consistent system model (requirements, behaviour, and structure) a structured review is conducted, focussing on the understanding and motivation as well as the modelling of systems. The review includes 93 publications from Design Society library and proceedings of the CIRP Design conferences during the period from 2011 to 2022. The review points out, that there is an increasing application of MBSE within the engineering design community, mainly focussing on architecture definition or combined engineering activities. Only a small portion of works (16 publications) are providing a consistent approach as these publications link all aspects of the system model and consider all three MBSE elements. It can be concluded, that there is a diffuse understanding of MBSE and different motivations are given to apply more formal system models as well as modelling tools.

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Shaping Method Ecosystems - Structured Implementation of Systems Engineering in Industrial Practice

Cited by 12 publications

References 17 publications

Reflection Canvas – An Approach to Structure Reflection Activities in Engineering Design

Reflection Canvas – An Approach to Structure Reflection Activities in Engineering Design

Access Logics for Situation-Appropriate Selection and Introduction of Methods in Engineering Design

Mbse Within the Engineering Design Community – An Exploratory Study

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