Managing and Engineering Complex Technological Systems

Chapter 1.6

The Future of Systems Engineering

In the world of technology:

It is clear that the prevalence of the main trends that had created the need for systems engineering methodologies (the increase in system complexity, time and budget constraints, and the extent of the clients' involvement) will only increase, and so will the need to systems engineering, mostly in technological organizations.

Today, systems engineering is mostly implemented in defense, aviation, and space enterprises. The estimate is that organizations in other fields – such as communications, medicine, digital printing and photography, or smart transportation systems – will adopt the same systems engineering processes that the defense and aviation industries have found to be so effective. Evidence of this is the rising number of students from other industry fields to join the systems engineering studying programs.

The emergence of systems engineering in these organizations is backed by the ongoing process of the field's institutionalization. Academic institutions are opening training programs for systems engineers. One such institution is the Technion, the only university in Israel to offer such a program: so far, its master's degree program has trained approximately 900 systems engineers. Israeli colleges are also offering academic programs in systems engineering.

Having come to understand the importance of systems engineering, more and more technological organizations are willing to integrate its work ...