Enterprise Value Working Group

Previously Enterprise Systems

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Working Group Purpose & Mission

Mission:

The purpose of the INCOSE Enterprise Value Working Group (ESWG) is to advance and to promote the application of Systems Thinking, Systems Science and Systems Engineering to understanding and managing the enterprise as a system.

Enterprises are highly complex, sociotechnical systems of systems that depend on the intelligent interaction, creation, management and use of various forms of knowledge throughout their organizational policies, processes and structures. Failure to design, to operate and to remediate enterprises as systems, is the primary underlying cause of the gross inefficiencies, unintended consequences and systemic failures that routinely inflict substantial economic loss and societal harm.

Systems engineering (SE) is an interdisciplinary methodology for understanding, designing and enabling system solutions for complex problems, and as such it is uniquely suited to offer understanding and solutions in the domain of enterprises. However, as applied to sociotechnical systems such as enterprises, SE must include an understanding of basic social sciences, human factors and other "soft" disciplines that may be unfamiliar to systems engineers who are more accustomed to focusing on physical, electronic and technical systems.

 

Process Enablers

TechOps Domain

419

Members

2012

Established


Chair

Joseph Bradley

Co-Chair

Richard Hodge

 


Scope

It is the intent of the WG to focus narrowly on the enterprise embodiment of SE and to work closely with other WGs that can and will inform this area - System Sciences WG, Complex Systems WG, System of Systems WG, Human Systems WG, Enterprise Architecture WG, and others.

The initial scope of the WG will be to survey relevant scientific foundations, to assess and prioritize concepts, and to match them with systems engineering concepts and principles for incorporation in an Enterprise Systems Management Body of Knowledge.

Amongst others, the following scientific domains appear to be directly relevant.

  • Major disciplines: Business Management; Organizational Behavior; Psychology, Sociology, Gaming Theory;
  • Other Social Sciences, more generally; Systems Engineering
  • Specialized fields: Systems Thinking and Systems Analysis; General systems theory; Soft Systems Methodology; Second order cybernetics; Social Systems Theory; Complexity Science

Goals

The WG will work to build a generic understanding of the elements and sub-systems and their various roles comprising enterprises, and a set of systems engineering methodologies for applying this generic understanding to analyzing specific organizations and their problems. This will involve establishing cross disciplinary teams and consultations involving systems engineers, enterprise architects, people from the life and social sciences, and practitioners in areas such as management consulting, organizational knowledge management, business process reengineering, and change management, amongst others.

Over the short term, the WG will seek to assemble existing knowledge and theories relating to the enterprise as a system for inclusion in the SEBOK that is accessible to systems engineers. Over the intermediate term, the WG will collect and assess methodologies and templates to guide systems engineering approaches for intangible and tacit aspects of the enterprise as a system. Over the long term, the WG will compile a comprehensive Enterprise System Management addition to the INCOSE Handbook and training and certification packages for Enterprise Systems Management.

Outcomes

To produce content for the SEBOK, handbook, and other INCOSE publications and training targeted at the enterprise implications of an for systems engineering. Establish common definitions and understandings of types of enterprises. Expand the role of systems engineering across all organizational disciplines.

IW24: International Workshop Focus

Coming soon...

Planned Activities

  • Reboot as the EVWG, with new leadership and interested membership.
  • Define a set of activities joint with other working groups to guide enterprise transformation in socio-technical situations.
  • Complete the open CAB action: how can systems engineering inform and be applied to non-engineering functions in an enterprise.

Planned Work Products

    • A primer for Enterprise Value
    • A literature review of contributions to the field since the last revision of the SEBOK chapter
    • Deliver tutorials on Enterprise Value

     

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