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Hillary Sillitto

Hillary Sillitto is head of the Integration Authority at MOD Abbey Wood. With 30 years’ industrial experience in leading-edge C4ISTAR products and systems, he is now responsible for the UK MOD’s approach to improving the integration of its entire “System Of Systems”. He is also the Development Partner for Systems Engineering in the UK’s Defence procurement and logistic organisations. He has been an active member of INCOSE since the mid-90s, has presented several well-reviewed papers at INCOSE UK conferences and international symposia, organised the first Scottish Systems Engineering Convention in Glasgow in 2001, and has been President of the UK Chapter since December 2004. He has participated in the INCOSE Systems Engineering 2020 vision workshops in 2004 and 2006, and received the Best Paper award in the Engineering Management category at the INCOSE International Symposium in 2005. He believes the insights gained from his involvement with INCOSE over the years had a major influence in his selection for his current appointment. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and served on its Scottish Branch committee for a number of years.

Systems Engineering and "Social Systems Engineering" for Network Enabled Capability

Much has been written and done in recent years concerning the technical aspects of Network Centric Operations, referred to in the UK as “Network Enabled Capability” (NEC) or more recently, “Capability Enabled by Networks”. It is becoming increasingly clear that effective capability depends as much on social as technical factors, in both development and operation: “the ultimate purpose of NEC is not to share data through technical networks but to share understanding through social ones.” Further, it is clear that the benefits of NEC are a result of the emergent properties of a complex, dynamic and non-deterministic socio-technical system. What does this mean for procurers, developers and operators?
The presentation is in four parts. The first part will outline the “SPIT” (Social, process, information, technology) layered model, and use it to illustrate the “wicked problem” we are trying to deal with and show how critical system of systems issues can be mapped and understood with reference to these layers. Then we demonstrate how Architecture Frameworks allow us to analyse the problem in more detail while maintaining coherence and managing key technical and operational drivers across these layers. Some limitations and caveats on the use of Architectural Frameworks will be discussed. Then we will summarise the social and cultural issues that challenge the designers and architects of networked systems of systems; and show how these are mirrored in the Operational environment in terms of aligning training, doctrine, culture and user expectations of the technology. There will be a discussion of appropriate metrics and of some notable differences in national approaches to the human and command issues. The fourth part of the presentation provides an update on the approach being used to upgrade the MOD’s Systems Engineering skills and improve the effectiveness of its interactions with industry. This approach is aligned with the Defence Industrial Strategy, benefits from recent INCOSE developments, and is increasingly focusing on “Systems thinking” and system value, to equip our people in Government and Industry to work together to deal with the complex challenges outlined in the earlier part of the presentation.
The speaker will conclude with a personal perspective on how some of the themes in the conference support his arguments.

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