Re-evaluating Systems Engineering
Concepts Using Systems Thinking

Terry Bahill
Systems and Industrial Engineering
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0020, USA
terry@sie.arizona.edu
http://www.sie.arizona.edu/sysengr/slides/similar.ppt
http://www.sie.arizona.edu/sysengr/slides/similar.doc
© 1997-2004 Bahill

Humans (individually, on teams, and in organizations) can follow simple processes to increase their probability of success. Many authors, both technical and nontechnical, have described processes for doing various things like designing a system, attaining business excellence, and solving personal and professional problems. The amazing similarities in these diverse processes suggest that there is a general process that might be closely related to human thinking. This general process was abstracted into the SIMILAR Process, which is an acronym for State the problem, Investigate alternatives, Model the system, Integrate, Launch the system, Assess Performance, and Re-evaluate. This paper shows how the SIMILAR Process was used to help re-evaluate the Requirements Discovery Process and the System Design Process.

Reference: [70]. This lecture is suitable for engineers or the general public. This talk requires an overhead projector (or PowerPoint and a computer projection system). This talk takes one hour.