WHAT IS A SYSTEMS ENGINEER?

My neck of the woods is densely populated by PhDs, mostly of the science, business, political science, and economics variety, There are very few engineers. Since I’m the only one to define myself as a systems engineer, I’m often asked “Just what is a systems engineer?” My usual response is to answer “The opposite of an expert.” Here’s why.

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he eventually knows everything about nothing.

A systems engineer is one who knows less and less about more and more until he eventually knows nothing about everything.

It’s a joke, people, but with a ring of truth. The job of a systems engineer is to wander around a project on the lookout for the (usually bad) unintended consequences of engineering design decisions and prevent them from happening. (Ed. note: he wanted to call this blog “Unintended Consequences,” but we wouldn’t let him. Shadow, keep out of this.)

The job requires a little knowledge about a lot of different things, and the experience of having already made most of the common bad decisions. (Ed. note: he has lots of experience. Down, Daisy Mae.) Which is why systems engineers are usually graybeards - male and old enough to sport gray beards if they choose (and I do).

The good part of systems engineering is that it is hard; correctly done, one of the toughest in engineering today. The bad part is that success is invisible and failure obvious. You never know whether a successful outcome is a result of the systems engineer’s efforts or dumb luck. Unsuccessful outcomes, though? One guess where the finger of blame points ....