INCOSE Denver
So this week brings xtracold to the INCOSE Symposium 2011 in Denver. Been here since Saturday night and it has proved to be an interesting time.
Difficult to suss out a city in such a short business and conference focussed space of time. Could be anywhere really. However, tonight I strolled to REI to buy a new chain tool. At the weekend I broke my specialized chain tool trying to break of all things the chain of the SX-trail. Now, that is topical. Let me explain. A chain tool that gets broke by a chain is a key failing of the highest level system requirement i.e. Brake Chains. Systems engineering is therefore clearly something that affects all of us ;)
So why do I choose to travel to INCOSE Denver? Well it seems abundantly clear to me that a controls software engineer can't help but be drawn to systems engineering. It is afterall clearly a discipline feeding off the learnings of software systems development. If you think about it, Software has never been able to exist in isolation of some other system. For those of us who have taken on the role of defining a complete software application or architecture we are compulsed to acknowledge the immediate system in which our product operates - in the first case the silicon on which we execute, rapidly expanding to those components that we interface with and control. The rate which the software complexity can grow requires a broad understanding of system interactions and it is this which has likely set it apart from traditional mechanical systems development. Not to say mechanical systems development is trivial, but now that we integrate so heavily components of all types to deliver a system function the discipline of systems engineering is born. Putting in place techniques that allow us to get our little brains around the complexity of the system.
For myself, sitting designing software components over the last 10 years was never going to be enough. Mobile phone networks, Set top boxes, Mortgage/Insurance websites, vehicle theft systems, engine control.....it is all the same. Software that meets a set of requirements. Systems engineering it turns out is the discpline that formalises what I have really been doing and have been interested in. Let someone else create the gilt etched software designs and implementations that in isolation mean nothing to anyone but the designer, I would rather be involved in the definition of the broader electronic control system function and architecture. That is what ultimately delivers what someone was asking for. So that's why i'm in Denver. To try and understand what processes are available to a systems engineer nowadays and how they can make my life easier, what does model based systems engineering offer when put up against the traditional software development processes and emerging ones? We shall see.
Anyways enuff of that. It also turned out that Denver had Pride Weekend this weekend. That is not ideal when you are one of two heterosexual male engineers travelling on business and wandering aimlessly through a pride festival looking for dinner or a pint. The interest in us was limited but some events stand out, truly a frightening experience. What else does Denver offer other than Pride? Well it has the most brewpubs of a western North American city. Isn't that wonderful? The beers are really rather good. Recommend them. They also have tables in the bars with self serve taps. Many years ago at Edinburgh University I wanted to invent such a thing. Seems someone else got there first. Oh well.
Thats about it. Not a lot more to add. Some pics of my Denver wanderings are below. Laters.
Difficult to suss out a city in such a short business and conference focussed space of time. Could be anywhere really. However, tonight I strolled to REI to buy a new chain tool. At the weekend I broke my specialized chain tool trying to break of all things the chain of the SX-trail. Now, that is topical. Let me explain. A chain tool that gets broke by a chain is a key failing of the highest level system requirement i.e. Brake Chains. Systems engineering is therefore clearly something that affects all of us ;)
So why do I choose to travel to INCOSE Denver? Well it seems abundantly clear to me that a controls software engineer can't help but be drawn to systems engineering. It is afterall clearly a discipline feeding off the learnings of software systems development. If you think about it, Software has never been able to exist in isolation of some other system. For those of us who have taken on the role of defining a complete software application or architecture we are compulsed to acknowledge the immediate system in which our product operates - in the first case the silicon on which we execute, rapidly expanding to those components that we interface with and control. The rate which the software complexity can grow requires a broad understanding of system interactions and it is this which has likely set it apart from traditional mechanical systems development. Not to say mechanical systems development is trivial, but now that we integrate so heavily components of all types to deliver a system function the discipline of systems engineering is born. Putting in place techniques that allow us to get our little brains around the complexity of the system.
For myself, sitting designing software components over the last 10 years was never going to be enough. Mobile phone networks, Set top boxes, Mortgage/Insurance websites, vehicle theft systems, engine control.....it is all the same. Software that meets a set of requirements. Systems engineering it turns out is the discpline that formalises what I have really been doing and have been interested in. Let someone else create the gilt etched software designs and implementations that in isolation mean nothing to anyone but the designer, I would rather be involved in the definition of the broader electronic control system function and architecture. That is what ultimately delivers what someone was asking for. So that's why i'm in Denver. To try and understand what processes are available to a systems engineer nowadays and how they can make my life easier, what does model based systems engineering offer when put up against the traditional software development processes and emerging ones? We shall see.
Anyways enuff of that. It also turned out that Denver had Pride Weekend this weekend. That is not ideal when you are one of two heterosexual male engineers travelling on business and wandering aimlessly through a pride festival looking for dinner or a pint. The interest in us was limited but some events stand out, truly a frightening experience. What else does Denver offer other than Pride? Well it has the most brewpubs of a western North American city. Isn't that wonderful? The beers are really rather good. Recommend them. They also have tables in the bars with self serve taps. Many years ago at Edinburgh University I wanted to invent such a thing. Seems someone else got there first. Oh well.
Thats about it. Not a lot more to add. Some pics of my Denver wanderings are below. Laters.