History of Furniture: A Global View

Description

You cannot effectively lead an enterprise in today＊s highly-interconnected world without some understanding of the science, tools, and techniques for dealing with complex systems. That is especially true for leaders who must adapt those tools to shepherd a system of systems effort, where attempts to tame overwhelming complexity can be hobbled by limited control over component systems. In such an effort, failure is often a consequence of blunders that can be traced to higher-level decision makers, rather than the technical or design decisions of the engineers.
offers examples of past SoS failures, explains why it is so incredibly difficult to build or evolve a system of systems, and provides practical guidance for leaders and engineers who are determined to overcome those challenges.
This chapter lists some high-consequence mishaps involving systems of systems. Most involved loss of life, and they all illustrate the need for more effective system of systems engineering and governance.
Complexity is both a defining characteristic and the greatest challenge when building any complex system. But the magnitude of that challenge grows exponentially when integrating or evolving multiple complex systems to create a system of systems. This chapter sheds light on the nature and impact of complexity on systems of systems.
This chapter warns leaders away from the most common ※silver bullets§ 每 overly-simplistic approaches that are more trap than tool.
You cannot successfully lead a system of systems effort by blindly applying tools and techniques that evolved to tackle individual systems. This chapter outlines tools and techniques for tackling the unique challenges of a system of systems.
This chapter condenses the guidelines from Chapter 4 into a convenient table for review and reinforcement purposes.
Mark Cantrell has worked with complex systems, and assisted large organizations with technology, for more than forty years. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Oregon State University, and was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer, in 1982. Over the course of his twenty-year military career, he served in a variety of technical and leadership roles, including heading a software development branch and serving as deputy director of a Regional Automated Services Center. After earning dual Master of Science degrees in Computer Science and Systems Technology from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1996, he headed the Marine Corps＊ Command, Control, Computer, and Communications (C4) Requirements and C4 Architecture branches in Quantico, Virginia. His final uniformed assignment was at the Pentagon, where he served as an Action Officer in the Joint Staff＊s J6 Directorate (C4 Interoperability Division). After retiring from the Marine Corps as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2002, he spent more than two decades as a systems and network engineer with several defense contractors, supporting a wide range of defense-related programs.