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Book : Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering, and Management (2003)

Summary

From the publisher:

No matter what field you are working in or studying, Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering, and Management offers you a comprehensive understanding of systems ideas and methods to help you achieve unmatched success with your challenging projects. This unique resource helps you add a systems-scientific grounding to systems engineering enterprises, showing you how to solve intractable problems, design systems to accommodate complex environments, and manage both creative and operational systems. You learn how to conceive, design and manage a systems engineering process for optimal results.

The book is filled with examples and case studies from a wide range of areas, from integrated transport systems, security systems, and defense procurement, to missile defense architectures, famine relief, and managing markets. This innovative reference introduces a generic systems lifecycle theory that helps you understand how systems form, persist and decay, and presents a 5-layer classification for systems engineering. You discover how to use a generic reference model that allows systems of all types to be addressed within a common framework. Moreover, the book reveals how architecture is used to create system emergent properties, capabilities and behaviors.

Content / Structure

Part I Systems Philosphy, Systems Science

Chapter 1 The Need for, and Value of, Systems

• The Book as a System
• Origins of Systems Science
  • A Mechanistic World
  • Perceived Limitations in the Traditional Sciences
  • Life and the Second Law
  • Information and Entropy
  • Causality and Teleology
  • Concept of Open Systems
  • General Systems Theory
• Identifying and Defining a System
  • Basic System Models
  • Fundamental System Constructs
  • Definitions and Justification
  • Systems Principles
  • Classifying Systems
  • Classifying Systems by Complexity
  • Classifying Systems by Morphology
  • Classifying Systems by Behavior
• Summary
• Assignments

Chapter 2 Measure for Measure

• Measuring Value
• Measuring Properties, Capabilities and Behaviors
  • Trade-Offs
  • Limitations
  • Entropy
  • System Effiicency
  • System Effectiveness
  • Efficiency, Effectiveness and Entropy
• Genetic Algorithmic Methods of Adjustment
• Optimizing Measures
  • Value for Money, and Cost Effectiveness
  • Cost Exchange Ratios
  • Casualty Exchange Ratios
• Summary
• Assignment

Chapter 3 The Human Element

• Categorization
• Motivation, Instinct, and Inheritance
• Intelligence and Behavior
• Belief Systems
• Resistance to Change
• Decision Making
• Perceived Entropy Reduction
• Summary
• Assignment

Chapter 4 Systems Engineering Philosophy

• Holism and Emergence
• Problem Solving
• Perceptions of Connectedness
• Systems of Systems
  • Bottom-up Integration
  • Systems of systems: Volume Supply
• Systems of Systems in Defense
• Systems Engineering Philosophy in Methods
• Summary
• Assignment

Chapter 5 A Theory of Complexity

• Characterizing Complexity
• Elaboration
• Encapsulation
• Variety
  • Minimum Variety
  • Useful Variety
  • Limited Variety
• Generation of Variety
• Energy as a Source of Variety
• Open Systems Interactions
• Summary
• Assignments

Chapter 6 Systems Life Cycle Theory

• Introduction
• The Seven principles of Open Systems
  • The Principle of System Reactions
  • The Principle of System Cohesion
  • The Principle of System Adaptation
  • The Principle of Connected Variety
  • The Principle of Limited Variety
  • The Principle of Preferred Patterns
  • The Principle of Cyclic Progression
• Synthesizing the System Life Cycle
• Applying the Life Cycle Theory
• Summary
• Assignments

Chapter 7 The Social Genotype

• Introduction
• Change and Social the Genotype
  • Quantifying the Social Genotype
  • Change by "Budding Off"
  • Progressive Conversion
  • Continuous Revolution
• The Military and the Social Genotype
• Systems Engineering and the Social Genotype
• Summary
• Assignment

Part II Systems Thinking

Chapter 8 Tools and Methods for Systems Thinking

• About Systems Thinking
  • Facing Up to Our Real, Nonlinear, Dynamic World
  • Chaotic Perspectives
  • Minimalist Behavioral Systems Thinking
• Causal Loop Modelling
  • Promoting Completeness with CLMs
• N2 Charts
  • The Hand-Drawn Tool
  • Encapsulation and Elaboration
  • Dynamic N2 Charts
  • Automating the N2 Chart
• Interpretive Structural Modelling
• R-Nets
• Behavior Diagramming
• Soft Methods
  • Soft Systems Thinking
  • Soft Systems Methodology
  • The Rigorous Soft Method
• The TRIAD Building System
• The Generic Reference Model
• Characterizing a System
  • Being
  • Doing
  • Thinking
  • Synthesizing the Whole GRM from the Parts
  • Using the Generic Reference Model
• Nonlinear Dynamic System Synthesis
• Summary
• Assignments

Chapter 9 System Thinking at Work: Case Studies

• The Doctor’s Surgery
• Hospital Waiting Time
• Societal Power
• National Energy Strategy
  • The Symptoms
  • Bringing the Imbalanced Implicit Systems Together
  • Assessment
  • Options for Addressing the Issue
  • Conclusion to RSM Issue Development
• The Railway Dilemma
  • Stakeholder Analysis
  • The Railway
• Computing Integrity
• Crime Management
  • Crime and Punishment
  • Proactive Policing
  • Police Test Bed
  • A Different Approach to Policing
• Defense Acquisition
  • Cold War Inheritance
  • A Chaning World
  • U.K. Defense Procurement
  • COTS Procurement Behavior Diagram
• Building Pyramids
• Architectonics: The Study of Architecture
• Systems Engineering: The Costs of Rework
• Summary
• Assignments

Part III Systems Engineering

Chapter 10 System Concept and Design

• System Solutions
  • Creating Solution Concepts
  • developing Concepts: The TRIAD Building System
• Developing Systems Concepts: The Seven-Step Continuum
  • The Far Side: Case Study
• System design
• Design for Operation
  • Scenario-driven Design
  • CONOPS
• Industrial Design Paradigms
  • Design for Availability
  • Design for Maintenance
• Designing Open, Interactive Systems
• Design Capability Ratcheting
• Operational Design Approach
  • Evaluating and Optimizing Military Capability
• Advanced Design Methods
  • Famine Relief
  • Afghanistan
• Summary
• Assignments

Chapter 11 Classification of Systems Engineering

• Defining Systems Engineering
  • Extending System Useful Life
  • Characterizing Systems Engineering
• The Five-Layer System Structure
• Level 1: Artifact Systems Engineering
• Level 2: Project Systems Engineering
  • The Classic Systems Engineering Procedure
  • Process-Oriented Systems Engineering
  • Goal-Oriented Systems Engineering
  • Unprecedented Systems Engineering
• Level 3: Business Systems Engineering
  • Evoltionary Systems Engineering
• Level 4: Industry Systems Engineering
  • Mass production
  • Lean Volume Supply Systems Engineering
  • Comparing Mass Production and Lean Volume Supply
• Level 5: Socioeconomic Systems Engineering
• Science-based Systems Engineering
• Summary
• Assignments

Chapter 12 From Systems Thinking to Systems in Operation

• Systems Thinking: About Systems Engineering
  • Beyond Technology
  • Always Two Systems: Creating and Created
• Identifying the Stream
  • The Source
  • Partitioning the Stream
  • Confluence
• The End-to-End Life Cycle Process
  • Outline Level 2/3: Conceptual Process
  • The Systems Engineering Shadow Board
  • System-level elaboration and Specification
  • Integration, Test, and Proving
  • Focusing Developing Emergent Properties
• Systems Engineering Goals and Objectives
• Developing Structural Support
  • Process Resourcing
  • Understanding the Process as a System
  • Calibrating the Creating System
• Accommodating Legacy and Change
  • Polic Information System
  • The New Interceptor
• Summary
• Assignments

Chapter 13 Operational Systems Engineering

• Operational Systems Engineering: Levels 2-4
  • Operational Systems Engineering at Level 2
  • Operational Maintenance Systems
  • Operational Systems Engineering at Level 3
  • Operational Systems Engineering at Level 4
  • Underground Railways
  • Heijunka
  • Market Systems engineering
• Socioeconomic Systems Engineering: Level 5
  • Social Capital
  • Historical Systems Engineering at Level 5
• Summary
• Assignments

Part IV Systems Management and Organisation

Chapter 14 Managing Systems

• Managing Systems Concepts
  • The Need for Management
  • The "Control Freak"
  • Management by Incentive
  • Management by Competition
• Organised Management Systems
  • Organized Creating Systems
  • Tensions Within Organization
  • organized Military C2
  • Government C2
• Systems Organisation at Industry Level 4
• Creating the Culture
• Project Management Versus Systems Engineering
• To Phase or Not to Phase
  • Stages and Phases
  • Phased Defense Procurement
• Elicitation and Requirements
  • Managing Customer Control
  • Specification Trees
  • Looking the Gift-Requirement in the Teeth
• Project Versus Functional Versus Matrix Organisation
  • Organizational Paradigms
  • Dynamics of Organizational Change
• Maintaining the Edge
• Summary
• Assignments

Chapter 15 Societal Systems Evolution

• Outcome as the Measure of Systems
• Social Engineering
• The Outlook
  • Increasing Population
  • Spreading Concrete
  • Atmospheric Pollution
  • Fresh Water Shortages
  • Energy Shortages
• System Thinking: Societal Evolution
  • Mountain retreats
  • Island Communities
  • Littoral Enclaves
  • Submersible Cities
• Pursuing the Goal
• Summary
• Assignments

Appendix A

• Configuration Theory as a Useful Measure of Systems
  • Measuring N2 Charts
    • Scoring N2 Charts
    • Minimizing N2 Chart Entropy
  • Practical Example of ENtropy Measurement and Reduction
  • Measuring Process Entropy
  • Summary

Appendix B

• Set Theoretic Proof of Method: Rigorous Soft Method
  • Diagrammatic Representation
  • Set Theory Proof of Rigorous Soft Method

About the Author

Index

Copyright 2003 Artech House, Inc.

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Related Resources

• Putting Systems to Work (1992)

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• Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering, and Management (Artech House)