Agile SE Part Four: Digital Transformation
“Digital transformation” means re-imagining the way businesses operate in the digital age, including how we engineer systems. Understand the possibilities that digital engineering unlocks.
Agile SE Part Three: Agile Contracts and the Downfall of Requirements
Requirements are a poor way to acquire a system. They’re great in theory, but frequently fail in practice. Agile contracting offers an alternative.
Agile SE Part Two: What’s Your Problem?
Agile reduces reliance on requirements and emphasizes understanding and meeting stakeholder needs. What does that look like?
Agile SE Part One: What is Agile, Anyway?
Agile is a relatively new approach to software development based on the Agile Manifesto and Agile Principles. This overview prepares us to dive into how we can apply this approach to systems engineering.
The Operations Concept: Developing and Using an OpsCon
You’re probably familiar with the ConOps, learn about its little brother, the OpsCon. An OpsCon is a valuable SE artifact that can contribute to the success of your system development effort.
“Diversity of thought” is the “all lives matter” of corporate inclusion efforts
Diversity and inclusion means making sure that teams are actually diverse, across a range of visible and not-visible features. Why does that matter?
Agile SE Part Zero: Overview
“Agile” is the latest buzzword in systems engineering. It has a fair share of both adherents and detractors, not to mention a long list of companies offering to sell tools, training, and coaching. Dive into a thoughtful, reasoned discussion about when and how agile can work for systems engineering projects.
Human Factors Design Drives System Performance
Human performance is a major factor in overall system performance and humans are increasingly the bottleneck for system performance. Human factors engineering design drives human performance and thus system performance.
Ergonomics
The term ergonomics was coined by Wojciech Jastrzębowski in 1857 to mean “the science of work” with the goal of improving productivity and profit. He described the importance of physical, emotional, entertainment, and rational aspects of the labor and employee experience, but the context was squarely on factory-type production. Over time, this has evolved into two, slightly different definitions.
Human Factors Engineering (HFE)
Human factors engineering (HFE) is a broad and multidisciplinary field that designs and evaluates the human interfaces of a system. That definition masks a lot of complexity, let’s explore the nuances.