Investigating the frustrations in managing and engineering defense system-of systems
This thesis is concerned with understanding the question on why, for several decades, engineers and project managers were experiencing similar frustrations when engineering and managing systems-of-systems despite various technological and organizational efforts. The first objective of this thesis is to identify the common frustrations in the area of System-of-Systems operations, management and system engineering. A second objective is to understand the systemic causes of these frustrations using different system engineering methods and tools. A series of interviews with mid-career experts from different disciplines were conducted in order to capture expert knowledge. Half of them were end-users from U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) while the other half represented the defense industry. A total of twelve common themes were observed: Technical Challenges: 1) Poor Requirements Engineering 2) High Complexity and Magnitude of SoS 3) Complex Stakeholder Management 4) Evolving SoS Requirements Management 'Pain Points': 5) Lack of Strong Leadership 6) Misalignment between Industry & End-users 7) Unstable Budget Environment 8) Limited Information Available 9) Information Compartmentalization 10) High Turnover Rate Organizational Influences: 11) Excessive Bureaucracy 12) Risk Avoidance Culture