Meeting Speaker: Andy Pickard, When “Yes” is the Wrong Answer (best paper award at IS14)
Albuquerque , USA
Applied Technology Associates (ATA) at 1300 Britt Street, SE
11-March 2015, 4:45-6:00 pm
Location: Applied Technology Associates (ATA) at 1300 Britt Street, SE, Albuquerque, NM; or Remote at https://incose.pgimeet.com/GlobalmeetSix, with Access Number: 1-719-234-7872
, Guest Passcode: 979 060 4132
Abstract: Systems Engineering’s value comes from doing effective pre-work to avoid later, expensive rework. There are many barriers to uptake of Systems Engineering, including the difficulty of abstract and holistic thinking and project time pressures. This presentation (and paper) focuses on the time pressures, and the usual desire to show positive progress in any form of review of a project. This leads to a behavior where there is a tendency to say “yes” in answer to a question because we know it is the desired answer. Inappropriate “yes” statements to questions like “Are the requirements complete?” result in a tendency to stop the pre-work, and start the solution stage pre-maturely or with false confidence. The presentation (and paper) proposes as a heuristic that the Systems Engineer recognizes that there are implicit dangers in answering “yes” to many review type questions.
Bio: Andrew Pickard joined Rolls-Royce in 1977 after completing a Ph.D. at Cambridge University in Fatigue and Fracture of Metals and Alloys. He is a Rolls-Royce Associate Fellow in System Engineering, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a Chartered Engineer and a member of SAE International and of INCOSE. He is Vice-Chair of the SAE Aerospace Council and represents Rolls-Royce on the INCOSE Corporate Advisory Board.