The Changing Role of the Systems Engineer in a System of Systems (SOS) Environment

In traditional Systems Engineering, the Systems Engineer acts as the overall system creator. Primarily through stakeholder interaction, requirements analysis, and architectural design, the Systems Engineering shapes and influences the system solution through specifications, top-down design, and bottoms-up integration and test. With the large-scale introduction of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, the Systems Engineer acts more like a composer. The top-down requirements and design activities need to be adjusted to account for the bottoms-up constraints imposed by the COTS technology. The System Engineer shapes and influences COTS-based developments through requirements modifications and negotiations, along with simultaneous system design, integration, and test. This paper explores the changing role of the Systems Engineer in today's complex system of systems (SoS) environment. We will use the analogies of conductor and choreographer to describe the System Engineering leadership challenges that exist in a SoS environment. Similar to a conductor, we will look at the set of activities that ensure the elements in the SoS work together in harmony. Similar to a choreographer, we will look at the set of activities that ensure the expressive nature of each of the SoS elements is fully realized, while still conforming to its overall objectives. Using these analogies, we will draw some conclusions for the evolving Systems Engineering role in a SoS environment. We will also explore which of these activities emerge as dominant in situations both with and without a lead SoS integrator.