SEPO's quarterly newsletter, Collaborations, highlights programs and initiatives of interest to MITRE and our customers. Every issue offers insights into important systems engineering topics, such as basic systems engineering, prototyping, configuration management, decision support, requirements, risk management, and working with customers.

Human Systems Integration— Fall 2007 (Vol. 5, No. 2). [PDF, 500KB]. This issue follows on the heels of the Engineering Systems for People and Organizations Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM) held in February 2007. In a letter to MITRE staff about the TEM, MITRE President and CEO Al Grasso wrote that MITRE managers and project leaders should determine what impact HSI is having on their programs and consider HSI when planning for FY08 program support. At the TEM, MITRE HSI experts talked about a variety of topics, including cognitive systems engineering and cognitive task analysis, interaction design, usability testing and assessment, and workflow and work environment analyses. The overwhelming response from participants for more information called for a continued forum for examining HSI and its application to the MITRE work program.

Enterprise Architecture and ESE: Defining the Discipline — June 2007 (Vol. 5, No. 1). [PDF, 1MB]. Architecture evokes construction—the act, the process, and the practice. To be an architect is to be an artist as well as a craftsman, a scientist as well as a visionary. Architects throughout history have based their creations on visions of what might be. This process of reinvention involves hard science and soft blueprints, which are often turned into models for testing before being scaled up to size. Careful calculations went into the pyramids of Egypt, just as they did for the World Trade Center and Taipei 101, now the tallest construction in the world. Architects calculate according to the laws of physics and consider worst-case scenarios, many of which they invent and test for. However, what can't be imagined is impossible to mitigate, as was discovered when the World Trade Center collapsed like a house of cards on September 11, 2001— in spite of its sound construction and redundant systems.

Re-Instilling Technical Rigor into Acquisition Programs — October 2006 (Vol. 4, No. 2). [PDF, 694KB]. "Revitalizing systems engineering programs begins with rigorous technical planning." Robert Skalamera, Director of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (OUSD[AT&L]), gives his thoughts about Systems Engineering Plans (SEPs). SEPs are blueprints for the conduct, management, and control of the technical aspects of an acquisition program from conception to disposal. SEPs capture how the systems engineering process is applied and tailored to meet acquisition objectives. The process of developing and coordinating SEPs forces thoughtful consideration, debate, and decisions to produce a sound systems engineering strategy for a program that meets its technical issues, lifecycle phase, and overall objectives. This issue examines the need for SEPs, offers examples of their successful integration into programs and provides lessons learned from MITRE people who have been working with SEPs for the past few years.

Systems Engineering Tools @ MITRE — March 2006 (Vol. 4, No. 1). [PDF, 1MB]. MITRE applies a variety of systems engineering tools to the work it does. Systems engineering tools can aid in modeling and managing enterprise architectures, understanding complex systems, and assessing and managing risk, to name a few areas. There are many tools out there: some are commercial products that can be applied to a broad range of jobs, while others are home grown to fit the needs of a specific task or program. With all the choices, you may have difficulty selecting a tool that meets your needs. This issue highlights some of the tools that various Centers use. You'll find articles that offer insight into the tools' ease of use and effectiveness as well as the value these tools add to the programs in which they are employed.

Perspectives on Complex-System Engineering — June 2005 (Vol. 3, No. 2). [PDF, 1.24MB]. What is a complex system, and what makes it behave the way it does? Is engineering a complex system more difficult? Can traditional system engineering practices be applied to complex systems? Can such a system even be engineered? As systems become increasingly large and must seamlessly interoperate with other systems in ways that were never envisioned, system engineers are bumping into the limits of the tenets, principles, and practices traditionally used in systems engineering. In this issue of Collaborations we asked people from inside and outside MITRE for their perspectives on this topic.

What is Software Engineering and What Isn't? — February 2005 (Vol. 3, No. 1). [PDF, 222KB]. Problems with the cost and schedule for delivery of systems are often blamed on software. But software problems are now system problems and vice versa. For this reason, this issue of Collaborations presents a small sample of innovations in software engineering that are being used at MITRE and elsewhere. Recent innovations in software engineering include use of commercial-off-the-shelf products and open source software; service-oriented architecture; model-driven architecture; enterprise architecture and integration; patterns; and agile, eXtreme, and spiral acquisition and development.

Engineering Complex Systems @ MITRE — October 2004 (Vol. 2, No. 4). [PDF, 246KB]. What characterizes a complex system? What makes systems engineering more difficult today? What works and what doesn’t work when dealing with complex systems? This issue of the Collaborations looks at how systems engineering is dealing with the complexity of enterprise-wide applications. Systems engineering has become a topic for research, innovation, and improvement in industry and academia. Learn what systems engineering work MITRE's Centers are doing with complex systems.

Systems Engineering @ MITRE — August 2004 (Vol. 2, No. 3) [PDF, 507KB]. What are MITRE's views of systems engineering? What makes a good systems engineer? What does the future look like for systems engineers? This issue describes examples of MITRE systems engineering work, systems engineering lessons learned, the emerging changes in technology, and the growing requirement for global or enterprise systems of systems. There is also an article on how the SEPO library can be a valuable resource to the system engineer.

Prototyping @ MITRE — May 2004 (Vol. 2, No. 2) [PDF, 366KB]. What is prototyping? How is it used to enhance capabilities of existing systems? This issue describes examples of prototypes; explains what to prototype; describes a development environment and tools for rapidly producing software for prototypes; and options for transferring prototypes from MITRE to other organizations for continued support and further uses.

Configuration Management — February 2004 (Vol. 2, No. 1) [PDF, 779KB]. Configuration management (CM) is essential to a program's success. It helps you control and maintain systems, systems of systems, products, procedures, operational performance, or behavior. MITRE project managers can use CM methods to help identify, track, and control system development from the inception of the concept for the system until it is replaced or retired. This issue describes the main elements of an effective CM process.

Decision Support — November 2003 (Vol. 1, No. 4) [PDF, 617KB]. MITRE sponsors face uniquely challenging decision-making environments with extreme consequences, time sensitivity, and the need to collaborate effectively. This issue focuses on cross-cutting MITRE program efforts that provide specialized decision support technology to assist the operator in the loop. You can benefit from lessons learned and best practices from actual MITRE programs, and find links to decision support expertise and resources.

Requirements — June 2003 (Vol. 1, No. 3) [PDF, 2.29MB]. This issue describes how good requirements can give you powerful leverage over cost, schedule and quality. It also describes the SEPO Requirements Process Toolkit.

Risk Management — December 2002 (Vol. 1, No. 2) [PDF, 726KB]. This issue describes how to do risk management as a group process. The newsletter also describes SEPO's Risk Management Toolkit and RiskNav, a prototype tool that lets you collect, analyze, prioritize, monitor, and visualize risk information in a collaborative manner.

Working With the Customer — July 2002 (Vol. 1, No. 1) [PDF, 3.16MB]. This issue describes the importance of working with the customer, which turned out to be the main theme of the Best Practices Forum sponsored by SEPO. This article tells the story of a MITRE team that helped New York City officials in those chaotic days immediately after the World Trade Center disaster.