2021-02-17: Interface Management – the Neglected Orphan of Systems Engineering (Davies)
By: George Anderson
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Speaker: Paul Davies, CSEP
Guest Speaker: Paul Davies, CSEP and 2015 INCOSE Founders Award Recipient
Paul Davies is a notable presence in INCOSE INTERNATIONAL events, known for his spirited leadership and a keen analytical approach to the practice of systems engineering. His presentation to a Zoom audience of 32 persons last night was a great success and challenged the attendees to follow him through an explanation of why he believes that the interface management process is often improperly handled during systems development. After noting the human and organizational barriers, his first point was to suggest that many of the SE guides and textbooks fall short of providing a complete discussion of interfaces and may well be lulling us into a false sense of security because “we cannot see the pink rhinoceros in the room”. This idea was followed by a presentation of 8 best practices that should be considered while performing analysis, design and testing of interfaces.
Paul reminded us that the familiar sequence diagrams and layered architecture models apply to interfaces as well as other elements. Further, he divides the N2 diagram that shows systems interfaces into three steps, black box, white box and optimized. This allows for a better understanding of complex systems.
He also discusses left shifting and phased implementation techniques to demonstrate how design omissions or errors can be corrected at an early phase.
I will not explain these last two concepts, but you can view his presentation on YouTube and buy his book on the subject from the INCOSE UK Online Store - (it’s about the 8th title down the list).
Finally, I checked the SE textbooks in my possession to check on interface coverage. Paul appears to be correct as most textbooks deal only with templates and worksheets. This is consistent with many critics who say SE is all about delivering paperwork.
Watch the video of Paul Davies’ Lecture
A few of our 32 attendees for our Monthly Zoom Meeting.
We raffled off the book - Don’t Panic – The Absolute Beginners Guide to Managing Interfaces by Paul Davies. Get a copy at ppi-int.com/dont-panic-series/
Winner is Dave Fadeley. We await anxiously for his book report.
We provided a Certification of Appreciation to our wonderful speaker.