A Rationale and Framework for Establishing a Systems Engineering Community Within the Department of the Army

Abstract

Army acquisition programs are faced with increasing technical complexity and interdependence as most program products must integrate into a system of systems. The low quantity of systems engineers and the poor quality of systems engineering are credited as central to program failures. In an Army Systems Engineering Forum, the Army System of Systems Engineer (SoSE) asked what could be done to recruit, train, certify, and retain systems engineers. In this paper, we answer that question and identify that it cannot be fixed in isolation by addressing an Army culture that does not focus its efforts on training the personnel it already has. Quantity issues are not being addressed at the Service level with recruiting efforts. Organizations do not have formal collateral personnel exchange programs, yet many perform systems engineering functions. Training and certification gaps exist despite availability of training because personnel are not mandated to be certified to accept positions, in many cases. Systems engineering, although not blameless, is not the only issue. We also explore how the technical background of those who blame or want to fix systems engineering is an unbalanced perspective and omits the organizational issues and individual contributions of systems engineers and the other members of the program manager's (PM) team.