Managing and Engineering Complex Technological Systems

Chapter 1.4

The Evolution of a Systems Engineer

One of the major expressions of systems engineering still coming into being as a profession is the fact that the main specialization in the field is based on the accumulation of experience. There are graduate programs in the field, but the training they offer strengthens and deepens the knowledge base of those who have gained experience in the systems fields. In most cases, companies recruit engineers who trained in the basic engineering fields. These engineers advance through the organization's career and job rotation paths. They are assigned to various professional and managerial positions, and some of them, those, whose fields of interests have moved beyond their basic professional area, become systems engineers.

All the systems engineers we have conversed with have experienced this type of development process¹.

Below are a number of examples, based on their own testimonies:

Sharon Shoshany Tavory: “At the Department of Digital Systems, where I worked, the prevalent perception was that real-time software development should be done by electronics engineers, because software people could not see the entire picture. They only saw their own ‘bits’.

At the time, the term ‘systems engineering’ was already in existence, but it did not bear the meaning it does today. It was usually used to refer to someone who got promoted to Assistant Project Manager. In those days, I had begun doing systems engineering work. For example I, managed ...