The document discusses knowledge perspectives in systems engineering. It describes how most systems engineering knowledge is tacit rather than explicit, residing in people rather than processes or artifacts. It advocates that systems engineers act as knowledge brokers, creating "learning spaces" called "Bas" to facilitate knowledge sharing and flow. Effective systems engineers learn by interacting with stakeholders through informal discussions and experiences, rather than solely through formal documentation and processes. They internalize knowledge to build intuition and help integrate systems.

1. The Seventh National Conference
INCOSE_IL 2013
Systems Thinking Session
Knowledge Perspective
on Systems Engineering
Sergey Tozik
Bernard M. Gordon Center for Systems Engineering, Technion

2. Process - Artifact Paradigm

3. Process
Artifact
Tool Tool
Resource

4. People don’t do processes, they
Think Discuss
Build
Read
Write
Draw
Procrastinate
Feel Reflect
Learn
Argue
Produce

6. Organization
Team
Artifact

9. Tacit
Knowledge
Basho
ASHEN
SECI
David
Snowden
Ikujiro
Nonaka
Michael
Polanyi
Nishida
Kitarō

10. Snowden, D. 2000. Organic Knowledge Management: part I,
The ASHEN model: an enabler of action.
Knowledge Management. 3(7): pp.14-17.
Artifacts Interaction
Skills Heuristics
NaturalTalent Experience
Explicit Knowledge
Tacit Knowledge

11. Ikujiro Nonaka and Noboru Konno, California Management Review, vol. 40, #3, 1998
"The Concept of ‘Ba’: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation" ,

13. Preparation for design reviews
(not the review shows)
IPT discussions
Impromptu walk-in meetings
Informal gatherings and parties

14. g
g
g
g o
The heart of SE processes
Information in, Information out
Systems Architecting
Writing Requirement Documents
Analyzing Test Information

15. Elicitation of Requirements
Articulation of Design Concepts
Meetings notes and action items
Test Reports
i
i
i
i
i
i
g

16. i i
Living the user experience
Hanging out with the developers
Assembling test setups
Operating the system
Customer–on–site

17. i
g
o Learning requirements before
architecting
Acquiring the “feeling of the system”
before testing
Building the heuristics of “what is right”
Acquiring skills and experience

18. SE as creator of Bas
• Organize discussions – not meetings
• Walk around, seek and create impromptu bas
• Create virtual learning spaces (Sharepoint?)
• Provide ample space for discourse and dissent
SE as knowledge broker and knowledge integrator
• Don’t require documentation, document by yourself!
• Provide “externalization services”
• Learn in one place, teach in another
Listen (and look) to yourself and to others
• What you see, hear and feel is as good as documents
• Right intuition are a product of quality internalization

19. "[In the "Glue" role] the systems engineer serves as a
proactive troubleshooter, looking for problems and
arran-ging to prevent them … While the designers of the
sub-sys-tems struggle to make their subsystems do what
they are supposed to, the Glue systems engineer is
watching to ensure that each subsystem is not going to
interfere with the others.“
Sarah A. Sheard, 2000
Don’t do this by sitting in the office!
The Systems Integrator

20. Socialization
Hang with developers
Externalization
Joint creation of
informal notes
about “as build”
description
Combination
Create formal “as build” docs
Design IntegrationTests
Run and report formal tests
Internalization
Build, test,
feel and evaluate
informally,
decide

21. Systems Engineering is more than processes, documents,
models and prototypes – it’s incessant knowledge flow
Most of the knowledge is tacit and not found in artifacts –
managing this knowledge is critical for the success
Systems engineer has to create “learning spaces” (Bas) in
order to energize knowledge creation and flow
Systems engineer has to act as a “knowledge broker”
when the Ba can’t be created in time
Learning is the most important skill for SEs