Lessons from Systems Engineering Failures: Determining Why Systems Fail, the State of Systems Engineering Education, and Building an Evidence-Based Network to Help Systems Engineers Identify and Fix Problems on Complex Projects

Diane C. Aloisio
2018
As the complexity of systems increases, so does what can go wrong with them. For example, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas' design for the F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft in 1967 and the aircraft's first test flight was in 1972, 5 years later. In contrast, the US military selected Lockheed Martin as one of two companies to develop the F-35 Lightning II in 1997 and its first flight was in 2006, 9 years later, and the first production aircraft had its first flight in 2011, 14
more » ... rs after the selection. This complex program's problems have been well-documented by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and have contributed to the project's long lead time and skyrocketing budget. GAO reports on other military projects reveal that problems the F-35 project has experienced are shared among all of these projects. In this dissertation I posit that similar problems plague all complex systems engineering projects and that a combination of these problems may lead to negative consequences, such as budget and schedule exceedances, quality concerns, not achieving mission objectives, as well as accidents resulting in loss of human life.Accidents, or unexpected events resulting in loss, have been well-studied over time and we currently have sophisticated theories that help explain how they occur. The leading theory is that most accidents are a result of an accumulation of "mundane" errors at an organization, and that these errors are similar across industries. However, these mundane errors, such as failing to follow procedures and poorly training personnel, occur in all companies, such as companies that design and manufacture military aircraft. My theory is that these mundane errors accumulate in all organizations and result in many different kinds of systems engineering failures, including failures traditionally referred to as "accidents" that result in loss of life, as well as other types of failures which I refer to as "project failures".What can be learned from these systems engineering [...]
doi:10.25394/pgs.7488569 fatcat:kdtlm7ptknaidp2asvxvoxoc6i