With so many terms available to define the same thing, it would seem nearly irresponsible to introduce yet another term (complex situation) to describe a phenomenological state of such as a system. However, a complex situation infers both a broader meaning and imposes a different perspective. Complex in this context is dependent on understanding and reality rather than observer and knowledge. Situation imposes a gestalt that cannot be characterized within a singular perspective that relegates paradox to a superior/subordinate hierarchy. This also infers that complex situation has no monotonic definition or each definition is by default incomplete. Therefore the perennial derivations for systems such as complex systems, system of systems, federation of systems is no longer a sufficient descriptor for complex situation. Ergo system and its genealogy lack the constitution to define complex situations. The books' intent is to explore this pathology through a series of papers written by authors that work in complex situations and have dealt with the limitations of the status quo: systems.

A human-centric guide to solving complex problems in engineering management, from sizing teams to handling technical debt. There’s a saying that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions for complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams—and, ultimately, between the success and failure of companies. Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle focuses on the particular challenges of engineering management—from sizing teams to handling technical debt to performing succession planning—and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management for leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes. An Elegant Puzzle balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.

The focus of this book is on how experts adapt to complexity, synthesize and interpret information in context, and transform or "fuse" disparate items of information into coherent knowledge. The chapters examine these processes across experts (e.g. global leaders, individuals in extreme environments, managers, police officers, pilots, commanders, doctors, inventors), across contexts (e.g. space and space analogs, corporate organizations, command and control, crisis and crowd management, air traffic control, the operating room, product development), and for both individual and team performance. Successful information integration is a key factor in the success of diverse endeavors, including team attempts to climb Mt. Everest, crowd control in the Middle East, and remote drilling operations. This volume is divided into four sections, each with a specific focus on an area of expert performance, resulting in a text that covers a wide range of useful information. These sections present well-researched discussions, such as: the management of complex situations in various fields and decision contexts; technological and training approaches to facilitate knowledge management by individual experts and expert teams; new or neglected perspectives in expert decision making; and the importance of ‘modeling’ expert performance through techniques and frameworks such as Cognitive Task Analysis, computational architectures based on the notion of causal belief mapping such as ‘Convince Me,’ or the data/frame model of sensemaking. The volume provides essential reading for researchers and practitioners of Naturalistic Decision Making and those who study Expertise; Organizational and Cognitive Psychologists; and researchers and students in Business and Engineering.

Presents the origins and evolution of the systems engineering discipline and helps readers gain a personal familiarity with systems engineering experts: their experience, opinions and attitudes in this field This book is based on a qualitative study that includes dozens of in-depth interviews with experts in the systems engineering field. This book is broken into three main parts. The first part is a general overview of the systems engineering field. The second part discusses the changes the systems engineering discipline has undergone with the analysis as case studies of two significant Israeli defence systems projects: the IAI Lavi project and the Iron Dome project. The third part of this book contains interviews with renowned experts in the systems engineering field. This part is divided into five sections: systems engineering as the answer to the challenges of a complex technological world – the aerospace industries; the development of systems engineering in the commercial and industrial worlds, and in complex civil systems; the impact of the accelerated development of the computing world on systems engineering processes; systems engineering and the academic world; and systems engineering in the world of training and consulting. This book presents the main insights derived from the interviews, and an analysis and discussion of the question of the relevance of systems engineering to the management world. Some highlights of this book are that it Integrates the technological aspects with the behavioural aspects of the field Serves managerial needs of engineering and management in general, so managers with no technical background can derive knowledge from this book Provides approaches for seeing beyond technology-understanding the mission Managing and Engineering Complex Technological Systems is a great resource on management for managers as well as systems engineers.

Sensemaking in Safety Critical and Complex Situations: Human Factors and Design Human factors-based design that supports the strengths and weaknesses of humans are often missed during the concept and design of complex technical systems. With the focus on digitalization and automation, the human actor is often left out of the loop but needs to step in during safety-critical situations. This book describes how human factors and sensemaking can be used as part of the concept and design of safety critical systems in order to improve safety and resilience. This book discusses the challenges of automation and automated systems when humans are left out of the loop and then need to intervene when the situation calls for it. It covers human control and accepts that humans must handle the unexpected and describes methods to support this. It is based on recent accident analysis involving autonomous systems that move our understanding forward and supports a more modern view on human errors to improve safety in industries such as shipping and marine. The book is for human factors and ergonomists, safety engineers, designers involved in safety critical work and students. Stig Ole Johnsen is a Senior Researcher at SINTEF in Norway. He has a PhD from NTNU in Norway with a focus on resilience in complex socio-technical systems and has a Master’s in Technology Management from MIT/NTNU. He chairs the Human Factors in Control network (HFC) in Norway to strengthen the human factors focus during development and implementation of safety critical technology. His research interests include meaningful human control to support safety and resilience during automation and digitalization. Thomas Porathe has a degree in Information Design from Malardalen University in Sweden. He is currently Professor of Interaction Design at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. He specializes in maritime human factors and design of maritime information systems, specifically directed towards control room design, e-navigation and autonomous ships. He has been working with e-Navigation since 2006 in EU projects such as BLAST, EfficienSea, MONALISA, ACCSEAS, SESAME and the unmanned ship project MUNIN. He is active in the International Association of Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA).

This unique resource delivers complete, easy-to-understand coverage of the management of complex technical projects through systems engineering. Written for a wide spectrum of readers, from novices to experienced practitioners, the book holds the solution to delivering projects on time and within budget, avoiding the failures and inefficiencies of past efforts.

There are many books on project management and many on embedded systems, but few address the project management of embedded products from concept to production. Project Management of Complex and Embedded Systems: Ensuring Product Integrity and Program Quality uses proven Project Management methods and elements of IEEE embedded software develop