The term "system" is used often to describe a collection of processes. It is used in the agile literature, in other descriptions of software development and project management. But it is not always used in the form defined by Systems Engineers.
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of successful systems. It focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in the development cycle, documenting requirements, then proceeding with design synthesis and system validation while considering the complete problem.
This is an INCOSE definition. There are shorter ones. My favorite is
Systems engineering is the development of products and processes as a single effort.
The point of these two definitions is that when someone speaks of "systems" they don't always speak of the processes that go along with the products. Separation of product from process is the basis of some "world views." This is not a system view however.
Agile Project Management and Systems View
In the search for a definition of Agile Project Management, the Declaration of Interdependence as proposed a set of principles. Are these principles compatible with the systems engineering view, since we are in fact "engineering a system," when we are developing software and managing the project that develops the software.
- Realizing successful systems (products) is certainly the goal.
- Focusing on customer needs is important.
- Defining the customer needs is the result of requirements elicitation and management
- Doing this early in the life cycle of the system is critical to meeting those needs through a successful realization
- Synthesizing the design is an important activity in any development project. This is whats separates operations from development
- Validating the complete system provides the means to end the project
So why does the Agile Project Management world not yet have a connection to the Systems Engineering world view. It would seem a natural connection. A much better connection than to the linear, silo focused, set of processes described in PMBOK. In PMBOK the customer is connected to the process loop in two places - the start and the end.
More work needed
Definitions of terms like value, rapid, early, customer, frequent, innovation, performance, effectiveness, and reliability are used by the DoI. When these terms are given "units of measure," and those units of measure are connected to analytical outcomes for the business, Agile Project Management will have moved into the system engineering domain. A domain where the "trade space" of decisions is where management and engineers live everyday. Asking questions like:
- How does this action or technology benefits our project in some measurable way?
- What risks are reduced, enhanced, or made visible by this technology or action?
Questions that continually ask "how do we know that customer will get what they asked for?"
