10 November 2026 6:00PM EDT
Reducing Complexity – A Practical Approach. This paper addresses a practical approach to reducing complexity during system development. It is based on the Pleko-COSYSMO tool and presents a number of case studies of how to use the factors in this tool to manage complexity. It uses Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence (LLM AI) to search for appropriate cases studies and points the direction to future development of the Pleko-COSYSMO tool.
Emergence: At the Heart of Systems Engineering Systems Thinking is a core competency for the practice of effective Systems Engineering. Emergence, the fact that a whole has properties different to the individual parts of the whole, is a major aspect of Systems Thinking.
Typically, emergence is thought of as something unexpected, negative and being something that occurs within the system of interest. Whilst this is often true, this paper takes a wider view of emergence, illustrated by a number of examples. Emergence can be expected and is often positive or desirable. Usually, systems are designed to achieve the positive, desired emergent property, such as electrical power from a nuclear reactor. Further emergence does not only occur between the parts of a (physical) system – but also in all combinations of the system’s parts, developers, users, the environment the system operates in, and relevant technology/knowledge.
This view depends on the view taken of the system – the users and aspects of the environment can be treated as a higher-level system, and the emergence would therefore occur between parts of that system. This enhanced and more complete understanding of emergence can be embodied in Systems Engineering practice throughout the lifecycle (Research and initial concept considerations, during development and in-service vali-dation) to improve the probability of a successful system development and understanding how the system actually behaves.
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