Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

What is systems engineering? One answer is, “you can do it with only a pencil and piece of paper.”

I have been plagued with the question, “What is systems engineering?” for too long. As a job seeker, a common job opening is Systems Engineer. A quick reading of the job description shows that many so-called systems engineering jobs are really system administrator jobs.

Systems engineering job descriptions often have words like: CDR, PDR, CONOPS, requirements, design, eliciting information, DOORS, and RVTM.

System administrator job descriptions often have words like: server, Linux, Windows Server, install, setup, configure, VMWare, and Solaris.

One thing I have noticed about systems engineering:

you can do it with a pencil and piece of paper

I’m not saying that would be easy. Computers and applications make many jobs easier, and systems engineering is not an exception. DOORS and its related products from IBM make the systems engineer job easier, but the job can be done with pencil and paper.

The system administrator job cannot be done with pencil and paper. The system administrator quite simply administers computer systems. You can’t install a server without having the server. You can’t configure a server without a server and a computer terminal connected to the server. The pencil and paper can help, and I find them woefully under-used, but they are not sufficient.

So, when trying to decide if a job should be called a systems engineer or a system administrator, ask, “can I do this with a pencil and paper?”

For a few more details, see the International Council on Systems Engineering at incose.org.