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Faith in the Systems of Systems the Name of the Game

Engineering News
By: Kelvin Kemm
27th February 2009 

I was invited to be the guest speaker at an event of IMMIX Solutions, a company that supplies software solutions to folks in engineering and related businesses.

It was interesting because I talked about how the modern world is moving ahead at such a rate that engineering people have to take many nonengineering factors into account when they carry out engineering deve- lopment work.

It is no longer a case of carrying out engineering development and then informing the marketing and finance guys later. In our modern world, the engineering endeavour has to have marketing and financial input right from the beginning.

Delivery on time and within budget is a major factor in any project development, so today’s systems of systems, just like wheels within wheels, all have to function together to ensure that the product, or project, comes out at the other end on spec and on time. This is not easy.

I chatted with the MD of the holding company, IMMIX Solutions, Andre Pearce, and Kevin Mortimer, who is MD of the IMMIX Network Solutions subdivision. As is often the case with issues like this, we could have talked for hours. Other people also came over with their comments. Like a jigsaw puzzle, we built up a debate, over plates of chicken drumsticks, sausage rolls . . . and each different thing I ate seemed to coincide with someone pointing out another angle that had to be monitored, kept in check or reported to someone somewhere.

So modern software integrates different components of business and development angles to provide better visibility and improved efficiencies and productivity.

This interests me because, all over the world, we are moving into a more complex state of affairs as far as technology is concerned. It is an intriguing thought that, in the large-scale engineering of the modern world, there is nobody working on a project who actually knows what is going on. Yes, I meant to say it like that.

The overall boss may claim that he or she is in control and knows what is going on, but that is a relative statement. The boss knows what is going on because the design people say they are on target, and the guys doing the materials selection say that they are on track with making their choices, and so on.

But the boss does not actually understand details of the design, and probably does not know how to select the materials. All this has to be taken on faith – the boss has to assume that the other teams actually know what they are doing, and are actually in the right place on the timeline. This is the ‘systems within systems’ that we now have to contend with.

I recall a few years ago, as a consultant, being involved in a large military exercise. I was examining some systems over a period of weeks. The commanding general and I had become friends sometime before. As a colonel, he had been known for being a hands-on type of guy. He was always up at the front, giving personal direction.

As 12 000 soldiers and many vehicles, plus jet fighters, transport air craft, tanks and artillery columns all started to move at zero hour, I walked into the general’s temporary office in Bloemfontein. He was sitting, staring at the wall, and said that he was so pleased to see me – to have someone to talk to. He said that, for the first time in his career, he felt rather helpless. I clearly recall him pouring out his heart. He had worked on this for months and, two hours after he had given the order to move, the 12 000-strong force was on its way, and only in about two days would he know if they had ended up exactly where they were supposed to be.

He said that he was now too senior to interfere – he had to have faith in his sub- ordinate commanders. They were carrying out orders. He could not even show his face outdoors for a few hours because, if he did, someone would assume that something had gone wrong, and that the general had come to correct it.

He had this forlorn look on his face, and his fingers crossed. He was a very good general and, days later, it had all worked perfectly. A couple of days into the exercise, I was in the bush at a spot on the map, when his helicopter came in low, hovered for a moment as he jumped from it, and the chopper then roared off, weaving in an antigunfire mode. I took the only photograph that exists of him jumping from the heli- copter. I later gave him a mounted print as a gift.

Every so often, I think of this story, related to modern engineering development. The engineering boss has to have faith in the subordinate commanders and use tools such as software systems to keep in touch with what is going on. The boss cannot poke his fingers in everywhere.

Faith in the systems of systems is the name of the game.

Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu

Click here to view the article online (Engineering News)