Emerging Trends in Systems Engineering Leadership: Practical Research from Women Leaders

374 Pages·2022·11.245 MB·English

by  Alice F. Squires, Marilee J. Wheaton, Heather J. Feli

Women in Engineering and Science
Alice F. Squires
Marilee J. Wheaton
Heather J. Feli   Editors
Emerging Trends
in Systems
Engineering
Leadership
Practical Research from Women Leaders
Women in Engineering and Science
Series Editor
Jill S. Tietjen, Greenwood Village, CO, USA
The Springer Women in Engineering and Science series highlights women’s
accomplishments in these critical fields. The foundational volume in the series
provides a broad overview of women’s multi-faceted contributions to engineering
over the last century. Each subsequent volume is dedicated to illuminating women’s
research and achievements in key, targeted areas of contemporary engineering and
science endeavors.The goal for the series is to raise awareness of the pivotal work
women are undertaking in areas of keen importance to our global community.
Alice F. Squires • Marilee J. Wheaton
Heather J. Feli
Editors
Emerging Trends in Systems
Engineering Leadership
Practical Research from Women Leaders
Editors
Alice F. Squires Marilee J. Wheaton
INCOSE, San Diego, CA, USA INCOSE, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Heather J. Feli
INCOSE, Hartford, CT, USA
ISSN 2509-6427 ISSN 2509-6435 (electronic)
Women in Engineering and Science
ISBN 978-3-031-08949-7 ISBN 978-3-031-08950-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08950-3
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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This book is dedicated to our spouses,
parents, children, family, friends, and
colleagues who guide us to be the best that
we can be, and honors women in leadership
who blaze the path while also reaching back
to empower others in their journey.
Foreword
I have been participating and following the evolution of systems engineering for
40 years. I’ve seen how we grew from some basic concepts to a separate discipline
of engineering with our own tools, methodologies, and heuristics. Our tools have
matured from sketches, diagrams, and flow charts to model-based, computer analyt-
ics. We even have our own professional society, INCOSE, and seasoned profession-
als as both practitioners and educators. The editors of this book are great examples
of our numbers. There has been much written about the topic of systems engineer-
ing and the shelves are full of books. Software tools and simulations abound. But
one aspect of systems engineering that you won’t find much written about is leader-
ship. And yet, my own experience taught me that it is arguably the most important
aspect of systems engineering. Without leadership, systems engineering is just a set
of tools that may or may not give you the best system or even the right answer. This
book tackles that challenging subject and provides a valuable reference for the prac-
titioners of systems engineering.
There are few systems engineers that are more qualified to guide us through this
subject than the editors of this book. They represent the best from government
(Marilee Wheaton), industry (Heather Feli), and academia (Dr. Alice Squires). Ms.
Wheaton is a Systems Engineering Fellow at The Aerospace Corporation and has
guided the engineering of numerous complex space systems for National Security
over her career. She is a Fellow of the Systems Engineering Research Center and the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Heather Feli has a wide breadth
of industry experience including critical roles in the Space Shuttle program. She
frequently speaks and writes on leadership. Dr. Squires has 25 years of practicing
engineering experience before becoming a highly respected professor of systems
engineering at the Washington State University. Combined, they have nearly
100 years of experience and rank among the top gurus of the systems engineering
profession. In addition, the authors of the chapters span the breadth of the profes-
sion and represent every aspect of industry, academia, and government service.
They clearly have much to share with fellow practitioners of systems engineering
whether new to the profession or experienced engineers.
vii
viii Foreword
I started my professional career in 1982 when I entered the Air Force as a First
Lieutenant and a recent graduate of a PhD program in chemical engineering. I was
well equipped to perform as a systems engineer when it came to the technical
aspects of engineering. But it was not long before I realized that the hard part was
the leadership aspects of the job. As a young engineer, I found myself often as the
most junior person on the team but with the strongest technical skills. Without any
authority from my position, I had to garner the support of my superiors and guide
the progress of the systems we were developing. One of my first lessons was how to
lead from below. In one chapter of this book, Eileen Arnold and Dorothy McKinney
explore the topic of leadership from above and below. I wish I’d had the benefit of
their perspective before my first job. The value of diversity is a much-discussed
topic today, and yet, little is written on how to lead a diverse team to get the best
performance. Several of the chapters in the book address themes related to diversity.
As a senior program manager in the Air Force, I was often the only woman in the
room and observed both effective and ineffective leadership approaches to leverag-
ing the power of team diversity in decision-making and problem-solving.
Empowering diversity of thought is essential to successful engineering of complex
systems, and yet it is often perceived as counter to good systems engineering rigor
and discipline. I witnessed this firsthand in 2012–2013 when as the Space Launch
Certifying official, I led the effort to certify SpaceX for their first United States Air
Force (USAF) launch. Refereeing the debate between the government engineers,
steep in traditional systems engineering practices, and the SpaceX engineers, adopt-
ers of the latest agile engineering practices, was one of the most challenging tasks
of my career. As the Judge Widney Professor of Systems Architecting and Systems
Engineering at the University of Southern California, I share these experiences and
others with the students to help them understand the importance of leadership skills.
I took 36 years to learn how to lead in systems engineering. We can’t afford to
wait for the current generation of systems engineering professionals to learn those
skills from experience. This book presents an opportunity for you to learn from the
experience of others, like the editors and the authors. If you are a new systems engi-
neer, it is a reference guide as you learn on the job and hone your skills. Industry,
academia, and government organizations will find it a resource for both education
and leadership training. For institutes of higher education, the text serves as a reader
for an engineering management course, or women’s studies, or executive leadership
programs. Human resource departments in industry and academia will find it useful
in developing their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. In short, this book
has something for everyone!
Ellen M. Pawlikowski General (retired) is an independent consultant providing
expertise on strategic planning, program management, logistics, and research and
development. She is the Judge Widney Professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering
at the University of Southern California. She serves on the Boards of Directors for
the Raytheon Company, Intelsat SA, Applied Research Associates, and SRI
International. Ellen Pawlikowski was the third woman to achieve the rank of General
in the US Air Force. In her last assignment, she served as Commander, Air Force
Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The command employs
Foreword ix
some 80,000 people and manages $60 billion annually, providing the Air Force with
research and development, life cycle systems management, test and evaluation,
installation support, depot maintenance, and supply chain management. She entered
the Air Force in 1978 as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at the New
Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ. She then attended the University of
California at Berkeley as a Fannie and John Hertz Foundation fellow and received a
Doctorate in chemical engineering in December 1981. General Pawlikowski’s
career has spanned a wide variety of technical management, leadership and staff
positions. She commanded five times as a general officer, commanding the
MILSATCOM Systems Wing, the AF element of the National Reconnaissance
Office, AF Research Laboratory, the Space and Missile Systems Center, and Air
force Materiel Command. She also served as the program director and program
executive officer for several multibillion-dollar military-system acquisitions.
General Pawlikowski is nationally recognized for her leadership and technical man-
agement acumen. Among her recognitions are the Women in Aerospace Life Time
Achievement Award, the NDIA’s Peter B Teets Award, and the Air Force Association
Executive Management Award. She is an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute
of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a Fellow of the Directed Energy Professional
Society, and a member of the National Academy of Engineers. Ellen Pawlikowski
was born in Bloomfield, NJ, and currently resides in Macon, GA.
Preface
Today’s leaders need to be successful in a changing and complex global environ-
ment. One key to this success is the ability of leaders to adapt to changing circum-
stances while remaining committed to employees, customers, suppliers,
shareholders, and the community. Emerging Trends in Systems Engineering
Leadership: Practical Research from Women Leaders offers multiple perspectives
for addressing systems engineering leadership in a changing world. The goal of the
book is to share experience and research on systems engineering leadership that is
both engaging and useful to the reader. The book’s uniqueness is born through the
varied experiences and backgrounds of the authors and the reviewers and their
diverse experiences, and the engaging and timely topics addressed in the book.
Keeping abreast of emerging themes is important in any field. Future leaders
need to be successful in a changing and complex global environment. To this end,
this book can be used to serve multiple purposes. The book can be used as:
• part of lifelong learning on any of the many topics addressed in the book
• part of a mentoring program
• a reference guide for systems engineers or leaders as you hone your skills
• a textbook in higher education for engineering management, leadership, wom-
en’s studies, and other programs and courses in academia
• a reference for engineering leadership training programs in industry and consult-
ing organizations
• suggested reading for diversity, equity, and inclusion and career development
programs conducted by human resource departments across multiple engineer-
ing domains in industry, academia, and government.
Overall, many different forms of training, educating, or learning can be enhanced
by the inclusion of the book as a resource.
For classroom training and education, Chap. 1 would be the best place to start for
an overview of all of the topics presented in the book. Next, the order of the chapters
beginning with the essential (soft) skills is a reasonable order for presentation of the
material. Alternatively, training could be rearranged to start with any of the parts:
xi