Agile approaches to meet complex system of system engineering challenges: A defence perspective

This paper identifies four challenges facing researchers and practitioners of Systems Engineering and Systems Thinking in defence capability: Language, Complexity, Longevity and Agility. Its purpose is to stimulate a debate on how best to meet these through systems research and systems engineering. It argues that this will require innovation in the development of new systems engineering practices for all parts of the lifecycle and, particularly, more agile approaches in R&D. Using case studies, it highlights some of the approaches that might be available to do this. These include working in extended partnerships, adding new methods to the systems engineering research “toolbox” and investing in systems skills. An important conclusion is that we must be prepared to research and engineer in an environment with high levels of uncertainty and be prepared to work with professions beyond engineering and science such as economists and sociologists.