System Engineering in the R/D World

[Hal Murray]

I've been named "system architect" on more than one project, and I've
always been profoundly grateful to the folks that have caught out my
errors. I always let folks know this, too -- and not just the folks
finding my errors, but their managers as well. At worst the equation
goes like this: I do something stupid, you notice and don't say
anything; we both look bad. Alternately: I do something stupid, you
point it out, we both fix it; we both look good.

Praise the messenger!

Make sure the rest of the group hears the praise, not just his manager.

The best thing about this attitude is that it is one of the areas where,
with the right PR, ethical behavior and selfish behavior march hand in
hand. When I can say "Ralph found an error in my system design, I did
some analysis and found out that my integrator wasn't nearly deep enough
for the modified filter" then the project wins because an error has been
fixed, Ralph wins because he's gotten credit for finding a problem, I
win because I found a solution, _and_ I win because an embarrassing
problem with my design was found at an early stage instead of in front
of some Major in procurement who really wanted to buy the competitor's
product instead.

Many years (10?) ago, my boss handed me a paper titled "Bugs are Good" by
Doug Clark. Scribbled on it was "must read". I haven't been able to
find it online, but it's easy to find references to it. (We were all
working for DEC/Digital at the time.)

The main theme, at least as I remember it, is that you should praise
the people who find bugs. It take a group-culture approach to
understand the logic. Finding bugs today is better than having them
find you tomorrow.

The other half is that you want other people to check your work.
They have a different point of view. They won't make the same
errors/blunders that you made. (hopefully)


--
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--
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[Jerry Avins]

Jerry Avins wrote:

Reprise:

The centipede was happy (quite!) until the toad in fun
Asked, "Pray; which leg comes after which?"
That threw his soul in such a pitch
He lay distracted in a ditch,
Considering how to run.

Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

 

[Richard Owlett]

Jerry Avins wrote:

Jerry Avins wrote:

Reprise:

The centipede was happy (quite!) until the toad in fun
Asked, "Pray; which leg comes after which?"
That threw his soul in such a pitch
He lay distracted in a ditch,
Considering how to run.

Jerry

Is that Kipling or other? Just 'know' I've seen it before.

 

[John Larkin]

On 3 Aug 2005 07:47:42 -0700, jjlindula@hotmail.com wrote:

Hello, I couldn't find a single newsgroup to post my question, but I
needed a good group of people to post my question to. So let me
apologize if you don't think should be in your newsgroup. My question
is regarding the value (or importance) of System Engineering practices
in the R/D World. I work for the government and there are about 40
people in my branch. We do a lot of R/D projects as well as projects
for the testing groups. I would like to know from people in the R/D
world how important do you feel System Engineering practices are on
your job? Many of my co-workers say, "oh that's for really big
programs, we don't do that hear". Do you agree? Some believe System
engineering only pertains to the integration of the pieces of the
design. To me that is only part of SE, there's so much more. Without
being long winded, can those who work in the R/D world, could you
please give your opinions of SE in your workplace? Is it important or a
waste of time? What practices do you feel are necessary? Is SE only for
the production people? I appreciate any responses and hope I don't
offend anyone for posting my question. My intention is to gain enough
information to convince my coworkers to use some of the SE practices
I've read about.

thanks,
joe

Just curious: did you also post your original query to the
misc.business.product-dev newsgroup?


John

 

[Jerry Avins]

Richard Owlett wrote:

Jerry Avins wrote:

Jerry Avins wrote:

Reprise:

The centipede was happy (quite!) until the toad in fun
Asked, "Pray; which leg comes after which?"
That threw his soul in such a pitch
He lay distracted in a ditch,
Considering how to run.

Jerry


Is that Kipling or other? Just 'know' I've seen it before.

Out of my dim past.

Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

 

[Rick Lyons]

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 23:22:44 -0500, hmurray@suespammers.org (Hal
Murray) wrote:

(snipped)

Many years (10?) ago, my boss handed me a paper titled "Bugs are Good" by
Doug Clark. Scribbled on it was "must read". I haven't been able to
find it online, but it's easy to find references to it. (We were all
working for DEC/Digital at the time.)

(snipped)

Hi,

"DEC/Digital", huh?
Didn't they used to make computers?

[-Rick-]

 

Can't be true. One can easily design a 16ish bit processor in under a
week's time. But it will have to be embedded. You are right if you mean
a "competitive general purpose uP". It is awfully hard to compete
single-handedly against the likes of Intel.

 

This was in response to the following claim in parent message:
"The story I hear is that Frederico Faggin
was the last guy to single-handedly design a uP (Z-80). "