Meeting Speaker: Dr. Jimmie McEver, A Complexity Primer for Systems Engineers
Albuquerque , USA
Applied Technology Associates (ATA) at 1300 Britt Street, SE
Abstract: Complexity is increasingly being recognized as a fundamental challenge across the life cycle of engineered systems, arising in the environmental context for which systems are developed, the ecosystems in which they will be used, and the systems themselves. The INCOSE Complex Systems (CxS) Working Group recently developed a primer on complexity as a brief introduction to concepts and approaches for systems engineers and program/project managers who suspect they may encounter complexity-related challenges. The primer describes how complexity can be identified in an environment, a problem space, or a solution space, and discusses guiding principles and approaches for effective systems thinking and systems engineering in these contexts. In this talk, Dr. McEver, Chair of the Complex Systems Working Group and one of the primer co-authors, will present key concepts from the Primer, and discuss other activities of the working group.
Bio: Dr. Jimmie McEver is a Senior Scientist in the Asymmetric Operations Sector of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Chair of the INCOSE Complex Systems Working Group. He is currently working with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop strategies and quantitative analytic methods for the acquisition and systems engineering of capabilities for cyberspace operations. He has worked with the U.S. DoD Command and Control Research Program and selected NATO Study Panels on issues associated with network enabled command and control and C2 assessment, contributing to the development of the NATO Network Enabled Capability C2 Maturity Model and concepts of C2 agility. He was a member of The Technical Cooperation Program’s Action Group on Complex Adaptive Systems for Defense. He currently chairs the Complex Systems Working Group in INCOSE and the Technical Committee on Information and C2 Systems in the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.