Systems Thinking and Model Based Systems Engineering’s Utility to Solve Complex Organizational Problems - Cyber-Physical System Design Teams

The Systems Engineering community has embraced Systems Thinking and Model Based Engineering (MBSE) in system design and development activities to grapple the growing complexity and interconnectedness of modern systems, particularly Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). Systems Thinking and MBSE provide a framework and tools for better understanding complex problems, and improving decision making. Beyond traditional system design, Systems Thinking and MBSE can also be applied to solve complex organizational problems. This work uses Systems Thinking and MBSE to better understand the variables and influences in the system design teams themselves. This work applies Systems Thinking and MBSE to a complex organizational problem with a case study of Cyber Physical System design teams. Current CPS Design teams often fail to deliver secure system designs, which is evidenced by the fact that an increasing number of complex systems are being exploited by cyber attacks. The root cause is lack of ‘Security by Design’ often due to an under-trained CPS design team. In this paper, we demonstrate the utility of Systems Thinking and MBSE, using causal loop and block definition diagrams, to perform systematic identification of shortcomings of CPS design teams.