Systems Engineering Transformation Caucus Projects and Planning for the INCOSE International Symposium

The Systems Engineering Transformation Caucus is initiating a spectrum of projects to develop detailed implementation of Transformational Systems Engineering (TSE) practice and to demonstrate the value of TSE in a variety of practical contexts.  Most of these projects are in the formation stages and there are opportunities for individuals to join these efforts and make real contributions to the systems engineering practice.  You will note that most of the projects draw from more than one focus group within the caucus.  At the upcoming INCOSE International Symposium, members of the various project teams will be describing their projects and discussing them with members of the larger INCOSE community.  The projects include:

• Situation Awareness: 
• Situation Awareness supports TSE practice from the beginning of a development project when SEs must choose which SE practices to implement (Situation Analysis), through later stages of the lifecycle when SEs need to identify emergent problems with a project's practice practice, diagnose such problems and intervene to get a project back on track.
• Team Members:  Dean White, Dorothy McKinney, Nirmal Iyengar, George Sawyer, Lee Amon, Hillary Sillito (UK), Duane Hybertson, Amanda Foo
• Micro-Encapsulation of Design Thinking:
• Classically, Design Thinking teams are small.  The objective of Micro-Encapsulation is to create a component for the TSE Architecture that allows this practice to be used as a "plugin" for a larger project structure.  The purpose of the project is to bring the benefits of Design Thinking practice to much larger projects.
• Team Members:  Jean Souza, Robin Reil, Uhlrich Barnhoefer, Scott Workinger
• TSE Interfaces:  
• This is a TSE infrastructure project.  It's objective is to develop interfaces for "plugging in" TSE practices and practice components into the larger TSE Practice environment.  This project relies on an approach for bringing agility into the SE project environment developed by Rick Dove and other members of the INCOSE Agile SE Working Group.
• Team Members:  George Sawyer (New Hampshire), Carol Graham, Rollie Olson, Scott Workinger
• Group Flow:  
• In Agile Development and Design Thinking, it has been observed that often, there are moments when a project team as a whole, demonstrates the "Flow" phenomenon.  This state is characterized by high productivity, high creativity and euphoria.  This phenomenon has also been observed in elite combat teams and championship sports team.  The purpose of the project is to develop a set of practices that facilitate initiating and sustaining Group Flow on a consistent basis.
• Team Members:  Steve Kropp, John Gantner, Cindi Reyes (Albuquerque)
• TSE Analysis of Systems of Systems (SoS) Practices:  
• The INCOSE SoS Working Group developed and conducted a survey of SoS Engineering practices with support of the SE Transformation Caucus.  This project is intended to supplement the SoS Working Group analysis by applying Transformational Thinking techniques to the analysis.
• Team Members:  Carol Graham, Rollie Olson, Scott Workinger
• SoS Architectural Pattern Library:  
• The identification of Architectural Patterns is making a significant contribution to the practice of architecting systems.  While Systems of Systems Architectural Patterns exist, they have not been generally identified and collected into a pattern library.  The purpose of this project is to develop a SoS Architectual Pattern Library. 
• Team Members:  Ray Deiotte (Colorado Springs) (Ray could use some assistance.  Does this project interest you?)
• Extending Agile to Large Project Teams:  
• The "Sweet Spot" for agile development teams is usually held to be 12 members or less.  However, individuals such as Phyllis Marbach have been investigating and publishing practices that allow Agile practice with teams as large as 80 individuals.  Her approach has been to combine Agile techniques with classical systems engineering methods.  The purpose of this project is to further the work of extending Agile development practices to large teams by identifying and overcoming the barriers to large scale Agile practice.
• Team Members:  Phyllis Marbach (Seattle), Amanda Foo, Andrew Tisdale
•   TSE Business Model Analysis:
•   Classical Systems Engineering assumes a "contracted development" business model.  While this model applies well to many important situations, it is not applicable in others, such as consumer electronics and Web Services.  This has limited the expansion of SE to industries outside Defense, Aerospace, and Biomedical.  The purpose of this project is to define the crucial characteristics of a spectrum of business models that are compatible with various TSE practices.
• Team Members:  Lee Amon
• Organizing for TSE: 
•   Classical SE is typically applied in a hierarchical business organization.  However, some TSE practices such as Agile Development are largely ineffective in an organization where most significant decisions must be referred up the chain of command.  The purpose of this project is to identify the organizational characteristics needed to support a spectrum of TSE practices.
• Team Members:  Lee Amon
• Kanban Board for the Caucus:  
•   A Kanban Board is an important tool in managing Agile development because it creates visibility for team workflow in relation to project objectives and certain components of system architecture.  A Kanban Board is one artifact that is potentially useful in supporting Group Flow.  As a caucus, we face collaboration challenges that involve coordinating the work of many highly capable people whose efforts are often available in thin slices of time at irregular intervals.  This situation mirrors challenges in many other organizations, including INCOSE, itself.  The purpose of the project is to establish a Kanban Board for the caucus, analyze its effectiveness and tune it to our needs.
• Team Members:  Amanda Foo, Clark Ince
• The Energy - Water Nexus: 
• The Front Range Chapter of INCOSE is in the early stages of forming a project to address public policy for the Energy - Water Nexus, a "wicked" problem in a System of Systems context.  Caucus members recently attended a panel discussion on this issue at the meeting of the INCOSE Front Range Chapter, held at the Colorado School of Mines.  The Caucus is supporting the efforts of our colleagues in Colorado. 
• Team members:
• Colorado:  William Good (Front Range Chapter President), Neil Snyder, Larry Millikan, Diana Mann,
• SFBAC:  Scott Workinger, David Mason

Project team members will be presenting projects from the list above on Sunday, June 29, 2014 in a business meeting at the INCOSE International Symposium, in Las Vegas, NV.  The format of the meeting is to have project members present the role and mission of the project, the intended benefits, and how those benefits will be created.  This is an opportunity to connect with interested members of INCOSE, including such distinguished individuals as INCOSE fellows. 

The above is not a closed list.  Other projects are pending, including:

• Internet of Things (IOT):  Important aspects of this project are a strong SoS emphasis, the need to develop robust architectures for the Internet of Things, and potentially large commercial significance.  Even at this early stage, there is interest in our participation within the Silicon Valley startup community.  We are actively recruiting members for the TSE IOT team.  Does this interest you?  
• Micro Encapsulating Agile:  This is similar to the Micro-Encapsulation of Design Thinking; however, it focuses upon Agile Development.
• Modeling and Managing Emergent Behavior:  This effort is an aspect of the Situation Awareness Project; however, it goes beyond the scope of that effort.  It is intended to use a combination of theory and practical data collection to make pragmatic decisions about project practices, including how to choose a strategy to manage emergent behavior on a project.
•   Other:  Suggestions?

If you are interested in one or more of these projects, or another potential project in the TSE space, please contact your friends and colleagues that are listed above.  Note that while we have a flexible leadership model in the caucus, the nominal leader and co-leaders on a project are typically the first on the list of team members.  You are also welcome to contact ScottWorkinger@gmail.com.

By Scott Workinger, Ph.D.

INCOSE SFBAC Past-President

Scott Workinger’s Bio