Three Approaches to Big Technology: Operations Research, Systems Engineering, and Project Management

Johnson, Stephen B.

doi:10.2307/3106953

Cited by 51 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…The operational analysis of rational systems and choices resulted from the military need for efficient rational management systems and decision-making in WWII (Hoddeson 1993;Edwards 1997;Johnson 1997). Mathematical modelling, simulations, and quantitative optimization were developed to address these needs in quantifiable, transparent and applicable ways.…”

Section: Rational Modern Organization Theory; Formal Streamlining Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Egalitarian Paradise or Factory Drudgery? Organizing Knowledge Production in High Energy Physics (HEP) Laboratories

Perović

2018

Social Epistemology

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The organization of cutting-edge HEP laboratories has evolved in the intersection of academia, state agencies, and industry. Exponentially ever-larger and more complex knowledge-intensive operations, the laboratories have often faced the challenges of, and required organizational solutions similar to, those identified by a cluster of diverse theories falling under the larger heading of organization theory. The cluster has either shaped or accounted for the organization of industry and state administration. The theories also apply to HEP laboratories, as they have gradually and uniquely hybridized their principles and solutions. Yet scholarship has virtually ignored this linkage and has almost exclusively focused on the laboratories' presumably unique egalitarian organizational aspects. Guided by the principles developed in the organization theory cluster, we identify the basic organizational features of HEP laboratories in relation to their pursuit of narrow and broad epistemic goals. We also provide a set of criteria and methods for assessing the efficiency of the identified organizational features in achieving such goals.

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Section: Rational Modern Organization Theory; Formal Streamlining Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Egalitarian Paradise or Factory Drudgery? Organizing Knowledge Production in High Energy Physics (HEP) Laboratories

Perović

2018

Social Epistemology

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“…This is a grand target to aim at. Systems engineering overlaps project management and other organizational activities (Johnson, 1997;Roe, 1995), so it can adopt some of their tools and techniques. There should be no reason why the process architecting function (Kasser, 2005) could not improve processes, products and organizations to the point where the cost of developing projects is lowered by an order of magnitude.…”

Section: The Framework Shall Enable the Development Of A Way Of Workimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Systems engineering is performed in an organization with overlapping disciplines (Kasser, 1996;Friedman, 2006;Roe, 1995). Research into the origin of the disciplines found the following statement -"driven by cold war pressures to develop new military systems rapidly, operations research, systems engineering, and project management resulted from a growing recognition by scientists, engineers and managers that technological systems had grown too complex for traditional methods of management and development" (Johnson, 1997). (Kasser and Palmer, 2005) separated the activities (systems engineering, systems architecting, project management and process architecting) from the roles or job titles (systems engineers, systems architects, project managers and process architects).…”

Section: Figure 1 Iso 15288 Systems Engineering Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further research into the origin of the disciplines found the following statement -"driven by cold war pressures to develop new military systems rapidly, operations research, systems engineering, and project management resulted from a growing recognition by scientists, engineers and managers that technological systems had grown too complex for traditional methods of management and development" (Johnson, 1997). Thus systems engineering, project management and operations research can be seen as three solutions to the problems of the Cold War by three different communities of practice (Johnson, 1997) that have continued to evolve and overlap. In specific organisations, practitioners of one of the disciplines would perform activities that were not being performed in that organisation, but were being performed by a practitioner of a different discipline in a different organisation (Kasser, 2005).…”

Section: The Framework Shall Provide An Understanding Of the Reasons mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Kasser

2007

INCOSE International Symp

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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).

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“…• (Jenkins, 1969;Brecka, 1994;Roe, 1995;DSMC, 1996;Sheard, 1996;Johnson, 1997;Watts and Mar, 1997;Bottomly, et al, 1998;Kasser, 1996) for just a few examples of the different overlaps between systems engineering and project management.…”

Section: Discipline Campmentioning

confidence: 99%

3.4.1 Yes systems engineering, you are a discipline

Kasser

Hitchins

2012

INCOSE International Symp

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Systems engineering is currently characterized by conflicting and contradictory opinions on its nature. The paper begins by describing the evolution of systems engineering in the National Council on Systems Engineering (NCOSE)/ International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and the difficulty in defining and differentiating systems engineering as a discipline. The paper then identifies and discusses six different and somewhat contradictory camps or perspectives of systems engineering. After identifying the cause of the contradictions the paper suggests one way to reconcile the camps is to dissolve the problem to distinguish between the activity known as systems engineering and the role of the systems engineer with a return to the old pre-NCOSE systems engineering paradigm. The paper then continues by testing the hypothesis and shows that systems engineering is a discipline that can be differentiated from other disciplines. However, it is not a traditional engineering discipline.

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Three Approaches to Big Technology: Operations Research, Systems Engineering, and Project Management

Cited by 51 publications

References 1 publication

Egalitarian Paradise or Factory Drudgery? Organizing Knowledge Production in High Energy Physics (HEP) Laboratories

Egalitarian Paradise or Factory Drudgery? Organizing Knowledge Production in High Energy Physics (HEP) Laboratories

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

3.4.1 Yes systems engineering, you are a discipline

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