Agile System Engineering

I am a Systems Engineer working on a global project for which the timeline is of utmost importance. Making progress without stalling for textbook system engineering principles is a must. I will try to make some posts on how that can be achieved, with an entertaining angle.

[agilesyseng]

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work.” ― John Gall, The Systems Bible: The Beginner's Guide to Systems Large and Small

[agilesyseng]

Agile System Engineering turned 9 today! Not that I have posted that much… will try to do better!

[fuck-customers]

(half rant half story)

I'm a physicist. I work for a company that helps develop car parts. Essentially, car companies come to us with ideas on what they want from a part or material, and we make/test the idea or help them make/test it. Usually this means talking to other scientists and engineers and experts and it's all fine. Sometimes this means talking to businesspeople and board execs and I hate them

A bit ago when AI was really taking off in the zeitgeist I went to a meeting to talk about some tweaks Car Company A wanted to make to their hydraulics- specifically the master cylinder, but it doesn't super matter. I thought I'd be talking to their engineers - it ends up being just me, their head supervisor (who was not a scientist/engineer) and one of their executives from a different area (also not a scientist/engineer). I'm the only one in the room who actually knows how a car works, and also the lowest-level employee, and also aware that these people will give feedback to my boss based on how I 'represent the company ' whilst I'm here.

I start to explain my way through how I can make some of the changes they want - trying to do so in a way they'll understand - when Head Supervisor cuts me off and starts talking about AI. I'm like "oh well AI is often integrated into the software for a car but we're talking hardware right now, so that's not something we really ca-"

"Can you add artificial intelligence to the hydraulics?"

"..sorry, what was that?"

"Can you add AI to the hydraulics system?"

can i fucking what mate "Sir, I'm sorry, I'm a little confused - what do you mean by adding AI to the hydraulics?"

"I just thought this stuff could run smoother if you added AI to it. Most things do"

The part of the car that moves when you push the acceleration pedal is metal and liquid my dude what are you talking about "You want me to .add AI...to the pistons? To the master cylinder?"

"Yeah exactly, if you add AI to the bit that makes the pistons work, it should work better, right?"

IT'S METAL PIPES it's metal pipes it's metal pipes "Sir, there isn't any software in that part of the car"

"I know, but it's artificial intelligence, I'm sure there's a way to add it"

im exploding you with my mind you cannot seriously be asking me to add AI to a section of car that has as much fucking code attached to it as a SOCK what do you MEAN. The most complicated part of this thing is a SPRING you can't be serious

He was seriously asking. I've met my fair share of idiots but I was sure he wasn't genuinely seriously asking that I add AI directly to a piston system, but he was. And not even in the like "oh if we implement a way for AI to control that part" kind of way, he just vaguely thought that AI would "make it better" WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEANNNNN I HAD TO SPEND 20 MINUTES OF MY HARD EARNED LIFE EXPLAINING THAT NEITHER I NOR ANYONE ELSE CAN ADD AI TO A GOD DAMNED FUCKING PISTON. "CAN YOU ADD AI TO THE HYDRAULICS" NO BUT EVEN WITHOUT IT THAT METAL PIPE IS MORE INTELLIGENT THAN YOU

Posted by admin Rodney.

[foxes-in-love]

[agilesyseng]

And this is why you need to be explicit about the things that need to be done on any project... there are many things happening at any one time, specially when the number of contributors to your project keeps increasing. And personal life is just one of them, although of course the most important!

[agilesyseng]

Jama Connect: Batch process user license changes

Sometimes, software is well design and has useful features, which are well document.

I was pleasantly surprised by Jama Connect, the software that I've used both at SKAO and ALMA to manage requirements. I tried to change many licenses at once... and just by searching on the help for batch process user licenses I got to this help page:

(By the way, how many software packages have open, linkable help? Yeah, not that many!)

And surely enough, I just followed the instructions and it worked!

How bad is our general environment when something so basic works... and it amazes us?

[kcggggg]

We passed it a couple of days ago, but it has been 10 years since the strip "On Fire" which became the meme "This is Fine" was posted originally on my webcomic Gunshow.

My thoughts on the meme come and go, ebb and flow, and change on a dime depending on how annoyed I am that day. I should be so lucky to get to do all this for a living thanks to what it has become and helped me do, but it's hard to see the forest through the trees and it feels like I'm constantly lost in the woods anyway.

Still. It's relatable! You might use it in your office job if you have one! A lot of people do. It has kind of lost a bit of luster for me when I am still a working cartoonist trying to make something bigger and better and people just like this thing you dashed off for a comic on a Wednesday. Other artists might know that feeling. It's what we all as creators often deal with.

This strip has made me comprehend the idea of one's perception of art. I am bored more often than not, of my own art. I try to make something that excites me, makes me laugh, but sometimes you have a schedule and just need to pop something out now. That has helped me get quicker and let go of precious ideas, but it has also proven to be a double edged sword when the world at large has access to your work.

When a work gets as big as this has, is it still yours? Not talking about copyright and legal stuff. It says something larger that everyone can feel and relate to. I did not go through what Matt Furie has, but there is a similar level of control you just Don't Have anymore when your work becomes a meme on this level. I got lucky being able to ride it out a little. But it's not perfectly in my grasp. There's plenty of bootleggers and grifters who just use memes as freely as the air they breath.

But I've always tried to move forward. I rarely think about my older work or care if it's even easily available online. I'm no historian, I'm just the jester who's makin' up a story or tellin' a joke. But I've been forced time and time again with these 6 panels, to be the party pooper, gate-keeper, girlboss, etc and just to get people to recognize there are artists behind these drawings online. These memes we share.

And it feels like it's only getting harder. The best I can ask for is for people to simply forget, but the dog persists. So I do what I can and try to keep in good humor and be thankful that I can still do what I do for a living.

so anyway buy some merch. bye

[agilesyseng]

How many times in #SystemsEngineering things are a dumpster fire and people seem to be fine with them? Too many to be comfortable with them!

[bobby-luv]

[hachama]

this class annoys me.

[agilesyseng]

To be annoyed is to recognize that in #SystemsEngineering everything is a trade off…

[agilesyseng]

«I’ve been here so long I don’t remember what I did, but it had something to do with no-compliance.»

[agilesyseng]

Go discuss the Level 1 requirements for this…

[trendsongoogle]

The search trend for cold in the United States versus Australia. Google trends can prove that hemispheres exist.

Australia: Orange

United States : Blue

[agilesyseng]

It’s an spheroid, after all…

[mrgan]

Like many geeks, I haven’t worn a watch since high school. Having an extra gadget on my wrist just seemed silly, given that I already carry all the standard gadgets we’ve all had forever (5″ smartphone, tablet, laptop, fitness band, white earbuds, pill box, vape pen, vape jam). However...

[agilesyseng]

I haven't even ordered mine, but I've tried it on store… boy, is he right.

[agilesyseng]

Someone’s intelligence can be measured by the quantity of uncertainties that (s)he can bear

Apocryphally attributed to Immanuel Kant

[agilesyseng]

Robin: Batman, L1 Requirements are incomplete, I can’t cont… [Batman slaps Robin.] Batman: Make an assumption!

In the above mentioned dialogue, we have condensed one of the typical problems with textbook Systems Engineering practice: paralysis when Level 1 Requirements have not been fully defined.

Sometimes, when defining the higher level system requirements (what we call Level 1 requirements, or L1 for short) it might not be possible to have a complete set of L1 Requirements.

In textbook Systems Engineering, no further progress would be possible: decomposition of L1 requirements into L2 requirements would apparently demand L1 requirements to be complete.

However, requirements indicate what is needed from a system, not how the system has to do it. The designers of the system have domain knowledge that should help them, and if there is information missing to fully specify the system and create a design, the designers should make assumptions, and derive their architecture and further L2 requirements from those.

Of course, one of the roles of L1 requirements is to have design decisions trace to them, and to assumptions where those L1 requirements are missing. Of course, that means that assumptions need to be recorded.

But, what happens if an assumption is wrong, and needs to be changed? We’ll see about that in a later post.

[agilesyseng]

First post

Hi everyone, in this Tumblr, as the header says, I will try to post content which is relevant for modern, agile Systems Engineering, but possibly in a fun way. I hope we will be learning a few things, possibly from first principles, and also making some mistakes from which to learn.