2021-01-20: Lessons Learned from Fifty Years of Systems Engineering Experience
Date: Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Presentation: Dr. Eisner shared a system's engineer's retrospection of lessons to be shared with a future generation.
Speaker: Dr. Howard Eisner
Dr. Eisner has spent a lifetime of practice in the field of systems engineering. This lecture provided a "look back" over his 50-year career with his advice offered to the future generation of Systems Engineers. He elaborated on his top lessons learned through his experiences in working with a variety of companies and projects. He gave us many practical insights useful to the day-to-day work of systems engineers and also those in related engineering fields.
1. Go Back to Fundamentals
2. Read and Re-Read Rechtin
3. Talk to and Respect Colleagues
4. My Experience with the Captain
5. Alternative to DODAF – Cost-effectiveness (!)
6. Is There a Better Way?
7. Know Where and How to Get Help
8. Redundancy in Design is not Obsolete
9. Be Part of a Productive Team
10. Do Not Try to Optimize
11. Some DOs and DON’Ts with Customer
12. Build on Others’ Contributions
13. Treat New Boss with Respect
14. Consider Lateral Thinking
15. Value of Functional Decomposition
16. Do Formal Risk Analysis and Mitigation
17. Read and Re-read Contract Type and List of Deliverables
18. Generalize View to Set Stage for and Help with Growth
19. Care: Integrating Stovepipes
20. Re-think Models & Simulations
Watch the video of Dr. Howard Eisner's Lecture
We raffled off the book - Systems Engineering: Fifty Lessons Learned By Howard Eisner
Winner is Tim Newell — We await anxiously for his book report.