back...

Estimating the Impact of Systems Engineers on Systems Design Processes
Arianne X. Collopy, Melissa T. Greene, Eytan Adar, Panos Y. Papalambros

In this work we develop an understanding of how systems engineers or system integrators can mediate communication channels within a design organization, leading to increased technical success where otherwise no coordination is observed. The models developed here are offered as alternative explanations for observed communication or coordination gaps between design groups working on connected technical subsystems. The results of analysis of simulated organizational network data indicate that systems engineers in mediating roles can improve the probability of technical success as estimated by communication path length within the organizational network. This suggests that roles beyond those directly involved in design tasks should be considered in organizational models used to predict technical system performance


Preprint: PDF, (2.2Mb)


Collopy, A. X., Greene, M. T., Adar, E., and Papalambros, P. Y., "Estimating the Impact of Systems Engineers on Systems Design Processes", Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering Design, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Aug 21-Aug 25, 2017.