INCOSE-LA Chapter Speaker Meeting - The Vision Statement: Step 1 for a Project, Though Oft’ Overlooked, Jorg Largent

Feb 12, 2019 5:15 PM - 7:30 PM Pacific Standard Time

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ABSTRACT: Many keynote speakers, forums, and papers have addressed the challenges facing the systems engineering profession – challenges brought on by the explosion in computer and internet capabilities and in the speed with which data can be transmitted, unchecked.  Our profession has responded with new concepts, such as System of Systems, and with new tools and methodologies, such as MBSE and Agile.  This presentation addresses one aspect of the challenge, that aspect being using a vision statement as a tool to facilitate the proper initiation of a project in a manner to help ensure quality management.  The “vision,” statement is the proverbial plumb line or first furrow.  Once a part of the discipline (NCOSE and Caltech, circa 1994), the subject is not explicitly addressed in the current Systems Engineering Handbook.  The intent of this presentation is to review the value of such statements and to review their attributes, to cite examples, good and bad, and to consider how the changes in technology in the last 20 years might change them.

BIOGRAPHY: Jorg Largent’s career spans 55 years and ranges from the enlisted ranks of the United States military to Lead Systems Engineer on the B-2.  In between he matriculated at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  After completing his formal training, he worked in orbital mechanics on the Apollo Program.  At the close of the Apollo program Jorg became a Flight Test Engineer, primarily on the CH-46E, the B-1A and the B-2.  After he left Flight Test he moved on to liaison engineering and then to systems engineering on the B-2 program and special projects.  After Jorg retired from Northrop Grumman, he dabbled in railroading and worked as a conductor on the Sierra Railroad.  He has also mentored high school students, served as a judge at the California State Science Fair, has spoken on systems engineering, and has became active in INCOSE working groups, including Transportation, Very Small Entity, and Systems Engineering Quality Management.  He has been particularly busy as a writer for and the Editor of the INCOSE-LA Newsletter.  At the 2016 International Symposium Jorg was given an award for his contributions to and for his furtherance of systems engineering.