Cognitive Systems Engineering:
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Meeting Room 1
A Vision for Storytelling in Preference Communication
Giulia E. Palma, Bryan L. Mesmer
This paper provides a background on storytelling and explores the benefits of using such art in a
non-conventional fashion in Systems Engineering. Preference communication is a key role of systems and
design engineers and represents a part of the design process where much uncertainty and misconceptions
can be generated. Storytelling is most applicable to the communication of preferences, particularly
between the stakeholder and the engineers. Adoption of storytelling aspects may lead to methods and
processes that could aid in finding the true design optimums, reducing schedule delays, and reducing cost
overruns. Such new methods are being researched by applying storytelling concepts, such as the dramatic
curve and the drama triangle, to preference communication. This paper explores the role of storytelling
in systems engineering and offers a vision for future research in the blending of these two fields.
Storytelling in Collaborative System and CONOPS Development: Towards a Smart Experiential
Dashboard
Azad M. Madni, Michael C. Richey, Edwin Ordoukhanian, Fabian Zender, Jyotsna Venkatesh, Kathleen
Chang
Requirements engineering is an upfront systems engineering activity that demands the timely
contributions of all stakeholders in system design and concept of operations (CONOPS) engineering. There
are several shortcomings today in the system requirements engineering phase that result in extraneous
design iterations and rework. First, as a result of the use of specialized systems engineering notations
(e.g., SysML, UML), several non-engineering stakeholders tend to get left out especially in upfront
requirements engineering. Second, collaboration among stakeholders today is limited to information
exchange, not enhancing shared understanding of the concerns of each stakeholder. Third, requirements
engineering approaches focus on collecting requirements from stakeholders without explicitly identifying
context (i.e. assumptions, objectives, conflicts among objectives, and metrics). This paper presents a novel
storytelling-based system design and CONOPS development approach and software tool called Smart
Experiential Dashboard (SED). The SED incorporates multi-perspective visualization, and interactive
storytelling within the system engineering process in a manner that overcomes the aforementioned
limitations. The implementations of the SED is reviewed along with sample screens that illuminate the
capabilities of the tool and the potential of the overall approach.
A systems perspective on mental models research: Toward a shared understanding of team cognition
Alisha B. Ahamed, Sourav D. Mohanty, and Mark S. Avnet
Although it is generally acknowledged that systems engineering is essentially a team-based
activity, fundamental research characterizing the behaviors and processes of systems engineering teams
is decidedly sparse. As systems engineering itself becomes increasingly theory-driven, so must the
deployment of teams in systems engineering. Fortunately, a rich and diverse body of literature on work
teams in other contexts has been developing for decades, and an opportunity now exists to leverage this
extensive literature in systems engineering research. One of the most important aspects of a team’s
research to systems engineering is team cognition. The literature in this area spans several disciplines and
addresses the problem using a wide array of techniques. While the literature in each discipline has been
reviewed several times, a truly comprehensive classification of these approaches does not exist, which
presents a barrier to application of this research to systems engineering teams. This paper discusses the
various approaches used in the study of team cognition and the distinguishing attributes of each. Based
on a review of an eclectic and interdisciplinary body of literature, five distinct approaches to team
cognition have been identified. The approaches are naturalistic (ethnographic studies of real-world
teams), formative (feedback-based analysis of team learning), collective (survey-based measurement of
shared mental models), holistic (methods for quantifying team cognition from verbal interactions), and
structural (analysis of networks of shared mental models). The proposed classification scheme offers a
catalogue of tools and techniques for targeted research on cognitive factors influencing the performance
of teams that design and develop complex engineered systems.
Perception of Complexity in Design
Paul T. Grogan
Large-scale engineering projects face a high risk of significant effort overruns, posing challenges
to plan and procure new products for defense, aerospace, and infrastructure systems. While other
literature addresses complexity as an objective measure related to design effort, this paper argues
perception of complexity contributes to effort overruns. A new model of complexity in design relates
desired performance and required effort by composing two power laws associated with complexity.
Secondary data from a human subjects study with surrogate parameter design tasks validates a portion
of the model and measures the effect of perception in design groups. A conditional two-level regression
model shows considerable variation in perception among 40 different design groups. Results describe how
perception multiplies effort in inefficient design and how a systematic bias in perception among designers
may contribute to exponential growth of effort overruns in highly complex projects.