Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

When you consider it, systems engineers do something that everyone already does. Right?

Systems Engineers do a simple task: they ensure that all customer requirements are built, tested, and delivered. They keep lists and tables and all sorts of things that trace all work back to every customer requirement.

So why do we have systems engineers? I mean, who would build a system that did not fulfill all the customer requirements? Who would build a system that sort of “forgot” a few things that the customer wanted, paid, and wrote in the contract?

Answer: we all would. We all would leave out just a few things that the customer wanted.

Reason: we are all human. We all tend to do the things we like to do and avoid the things we don’t like.

The customer asked for a few things that we don’t like. We “forget” them and instead spend all our time building into the system the things that we like. After all, if we like them, the customer must like them more than those other distasteful things that were in the list of requirements. The customer probably added those distasteful things at the last moment and really didn’t care if they were in the system.

And besides, who is that systems engineer? Who does he think he is with all his nagging lists and tables and such? He is just a glorified clerk with all that stuff and nagging us about those last-minute, leftover requirements. He doesn’t understand what the customer really wants. We really understand and we are really building in the important things.

Funny how the important things are also the things we like.

So why do we have systems engineers with all their lists and tables and clerical work? Because we are human, too.