Essay About Evolving Systems And Larger Field Of Engineering Systems

The Case for Evolving Systems Engineering as a Field Within Engineering Systems
MIT Engineering Systems Symposium, March 2004 1
The Case for Evolving Systems Engineering as a
Field within Engineering Systems
Donna Rhodes and Daniel Hastings
Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
The solution lies in the direction of taking a systems view of things. When you have the view from space,
you realize that the concept of fields within fields within fields, systems of functioning within systems of
functioning, is the only approach that will work. — Edgar D. Mitchell, Lunar Module Commander Apollo 14, 1971
Abstract. Engineering Systems is an important new field of study focusing on the complex
engineering of systems in a broad human, societal, and industrial context. It takes an
integrative holistic view of large-scale, complex, technologically-enabled systems which have
significant enterprise level interactions and socio-technical interfaces. The establishment of this
new field has been a significant step toward evolving the holistic engineering-management
science needed to address the complex systems challenges of this century. Systems
Engineering is proposed by the authors as an essential field that appropriately lies within the
larger field of Engineering Systems.
Introduction
The question often arises when Engineering Systems is introduced to systems
practitioners, educators, and researchers, “what is the difference between Systems Engineering
and Engineering Systems?” The response to this question is highly dependent upon the
beholders view of Systems Engineering. The two coauthors of this paper acknowledge that
Systems Engineering can be and often is viewed quite differently. The extremes represent the
polarized views of the field today – which we will refer to as ‘classical view versus an ‘expanded
view. We will examine how each view of Systems Engineering is contrasted with Engineering
Systems. We assert that no matter which perspective