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Social Science Solutions for the Systems Engineer: What's Needed
Author(s) -
Dunford Charlotte,
Beasley Richard,
Palmer Erika
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.2021.00863.x
Subject(s) - social system , engineering ethics , social engineering (security) , work (physics) , systems science , science and engineering , system of systems , management science , computer science , knowledge management , engineering , sociology , systems design , social science , systems engineering , mechanical engineering , computer security
There have been many calls for systems engineering to bring the social sciences into systems engineering practice and research, as systems engineers have a host of issues in their practice that could benefit from engaging in a number of social science disciplines. With an organizational case study, this paper describes the problems in systems engineering practices stemming from social systems. Need statements collected from participants highlight what is needed for a social systems primer. The needs can be categorized into three broad themes: (1) A better understanding how social systems are different from technological systems; (2) How, therefore, social science theories and methods can improve our tailoring of systems engineering to different circumstances; and finally (3) how the findings from the social sciences can help engineers, as individuals, be more effective in their work. We discuss these need statements in relation to the development of the Social Systems Primer.