One of my favorite items in my small model collection is a 1:34 scale Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV)1 with sliding side doors, a roll-up rear hatch, and pull-back propulsion. The iconic vehicle has been plying our city streets for nearly 40 years, reliably delivering critical communiques, bills, checks, advertisements, Dear John letters, junk mail, magazines, catalogs, post cards from afar, chain letters2, and Amazon packages.
Read MoreCategory: Thoughts
What makes a good human factors engineer? Five critical skills
Recently, the head of a college human factors program asked for my perspective on the human factors (and user experience) skills valued in industry. Here are five critical qualities that emerged from our discussion, in no particular order:
Systems thinking
Making sense of complexity requires identifying relationships, patterns, feedback loops, and causality. Systems thinkers excel at identifying emergent properties of systems and are thus suited to analyses such as safety, cybersecurity, and process, where outcomes may not be obvious from simply looking at sum of the parts.
Read MoreMilitary-industrial complex
The phrase “military-industrial complex” was coined by President Eisenhower in his farewell address to the nation in 19613. In this address, Eisenhower spoke of the deterrence value of military strength:
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Simultaneously, he warned of the potential danger in the growing relationship between the military establishment and the defense industry:
Read MoreCollege interviewing tips
For several years I’ve been volunteering as an alumni interviewer for my alma mater. It’s enjoyable to spend a bit of time interacting with a younger generation and exploring their interests; my optimism is buoyed by their potential.
Read MoreAgile isn’t faster
A common misconception is that Agile development processes are faster. I’ve heard this from leaders as a justification for adopting Agile processes and read it in proposals as a supposed differentiator. It’s not true. Nothing about Agile magically enable teams to architect, engineer, design, test, or validate any faster.
In fact, many parts of Agile are actually slower. Time spent on PI planning, backlog refinement, sprint planning, daily stand-ups4, and retrospectives is time the team isn’t developing. Much of that overhead is avoided in a Waterfall style where the development follows a set plan.
Read More“Diversity of thought” is the “all lives matter” of corporate inclusion efforts
For at least the last decade, engineering companies have talked a great deal about “diversity and inclusion”. Inevitably, many people5 have the takeaway that this means “diversity of thought”. This is like telling a Black Lives Matter supporter that “all lives matter”; of course all lives matter, but that’s completely missing the point6. Diversity of thought is important to avoid groupthink and promote innovation; but that’s not the point of diversity and inclusion efforts7.
Diversity and inclusion means making sure that teams are actually diverse, across a range of visible and not-visible features. Why does that matter?
Read MoreAgile 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. What has been lacking is a thoughtful discussion about when agile provides value, when it doesn’t, and how to adapt agile practices to be effective in complex systems engineering projects.
I don’t claim this to be the end-all guide on agile systems engineering, but hope it will at least spark some discussion. Please comment on the articles with details from your own experiences. If you’re interested in contributing or collaborating, please contact me at benjamin@engineeringforhumans.com, I’d love to add your voice to the site.
Read MoreLearn from the mistakes of others
The problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by experience… i.e. the hard way. By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally a better way to do business…
General James Mattis
The most successful people in any profession learn from the experiences of others. You can learn from their successes, sure. But don’t focus on doing things exactly they way they did, you’ll stifle your own innovation. Instead, understand their successes, extract relevant lessons, and forge your own path.
More importantly, learn from others’ failures and mistakes.
That’s why I publish a Reading / Listening List. As of the publishing of this article, 5 of the 6 recommendations are about poor engineering and design8. I find these stories fascinating, enlightening, and valuable. By avoiding the pitfalls of the past, we improve the likelihood of success in our own projects.
It’s okay to make mistakes, but strive to at least make original mistakes.
Board man gets paid
For years I’ve been advocating for the effective inclusion of human systems integration (HSI) in the systems engineering (SE) process. I had to address a persistent misunderstanding of what HSI is and how it relates to human factors; while that can be frustrating, I recognized that it wasn’t going to change overnight. Instead, I worked diligently to share my message with anyone who would listen.
Recently, my diligence paid off. I was contacted by a group putting together a proposal for a defense contract. The government’s request outlined their expectations for HSI as part of the systems engineering effort in a way that the proposal team hadn’t seen before. Someone on the team had heard me speak before, knew I had the right expertise they needed, and reached out to request my support.
Read MoreDiversity in engineering careers
I had the privilege to attend the Society of Women Engineers conference WE19 in Anaheim, CA last week. I left inspired and optimistic.
Speakers and panelists relayed their experiences over the previous decades. These women had been denied entrance into engineering schools, marginalized in the workplace, and forced to become ‘one of the guys’ to be accepted among their peers.
We’ve come a long way. It’s never been a better time to enter the workforce as a woman/person of color/LGBTQ/etc. Diversity in the workforce and leadership of engineering companies is on the rise, barriers are falling, and the value of diversity is being recognized. And yet, we still have so far to go.
We recognize that diversity is good for business 9 and companies are actively recruiting more diverse talent. Our organizational cultures are still adapting to this diversity. In many ways, we still expect all employees to conform to the existing culture, rather than proactively shape the inclusive culture we desire.
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