Re: [SysSciWG] Systems Health

[Curt McNamara]

I think a "Systems Health" working group or project (as part of SSWG?) is an excellent idea.

Glad you are offering to help with it, and look forward to your activities.

I note that for centuries medicine has concentrated on pathologies (i.e. how we get sick and die) and has only recently given attention on improving health. However, the study of pathologies is an outstanding success! A favorite example is the Ghost Map (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_Map)

There appears to be a great deal of interest in monitoring system health for computer systems.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms858616.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health

                    Curt

On Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 4:40 PM, Jack Ring <jri...@gmail.com> wrote:

If you are saying that Sillitto, Troncale or Cabrera have stated a ‘framework’ for system health with respect to which one can claim pathologies, then please share it with us. 

Or are you claiming that a pathology claim does not have to be in the context of a ‘healthy’ system Or what?

FWIW, I do not find that “each proponent of a framework appears to believe theirs is the best, and that others should fall in line and use it.” 

Rather, I have found, at least with Sillitto, Troncale, and Cabrera that each are quite willing to share and rationalize their framework. It is just that I am unaware of any specification of ‘healthy’ system by any of these three.

Cheers,

Jack Ring

On Dec 30, 2016, at 1:05 PM, Curt McNamara <cur...@gmail.com> wrote:

Many members of the systems community have a framework they advance.

Each proponent of a framework appears to believe theirs is the best, and that others should fall in line and use it.

A few folks work on combining differing system viewpoints, and that makes their work more useful to me. Stilleto, Troncale and Cabrera come to mind.

       Curt

On Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 12:14 PM Jack Ring <jri...@gmail.com> wrote:

In the agenda below will anyone present the criteria for stating what a system is intended to do in the first place?  For example, the necessary, sufficient and efficient attributes of a system that is Fit For Purpose?

If not, then pathology of what? How will the various ideas about pathology (ways a system fails to accomplish acceptable behavior), e,g,, 

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574789111001438

be justified or examined for fallibility?

Also, given that systems happen via a system generation chain, e,g,, 

S0 = Operational SoS

S1 = Deployed System

S2 = Sociotechnical system that produces one or more instances of S1.

S3 = Sociotechnical System that Generates Recipe for (model of) S1US2

S4 = Social System

      That Enables S3

will the pathologies described be related to these respective stages of generation or applicable to all or what?

If this session would appreciate a candidate example of 'Fit For Purpose’ applicable to each of the above, I will be happy to provide one — in advance to foster dialog.

Else, wishing you a productive session.

Jack Ring

Too many of us do what we know how to do instead of what must be done.

On Dec 29, 2016, at 8:32 AM, James Martin <mart...@gmail.com> wrote:

The Systems Pathology project will be conducting sessions during the INCOSE Workshop on the afternoon of Sat, Jan 28th. To register, go here: http://www.incose.org/IW2017/home

We will cover at least nine different views or perspectives or approaches of Systems Pathology for Systems Engineers as well as initiate a professional society and its products and conferences for future development of Systems Pathology. 

• 1530-1545     Troncale     (will present a summary of the SPT-based, top-down Systems Pathology work of SSWG; note its     similarities and differences from NSWG work; summarize the SysPath related work of Miller, Swanson, Odum, Schindel, Gall)
  
• 1545-1600     McNamara will design and plan the follow-up activity esp. of the NSWG
  
• 1600-1615     Kerschmann     (will present
  
• 1615-1630     Activity-Discussion
  
• 1630-1645     Davidz     (will present her graduate student work on SE-related Systems Pathology, her detection of patterns in SE project failures, & describe interest of the next generation of SE’s in SysPath)
  
• 1645-1700     Activity-Discussion
  
• 1700-1715     Katina     (will present his graduate student work on systems applied to complex systems, with a focus on critical infrastructure, risk, & vulnerability, as well as describe interest of the next generation of SE’s in SysPath)
  
• 1715-1730     Activity-Discussion
  
• 1730-1745     Troncale     ((will present a “manifesto” for top-down Systems Pathology; announce specifics of initiation of an Int’l Society for Systems Pathology (ISSP); enroll Founding Members; describe the next year of ISSP Products and Activities))
  
• 1745-1800     Sign-ups and planning of 2017 ISSP activities
  

We hope to you see you there.

Regards,

Len Troncale

Some Short Bio Notes: Some of the presenters may be unknown to you receiving this email. So I have summarized biographies below.

Dr. Russell Kerschmann is an M.D. from N.A.S.A. Ames Research Center (ret.) and a Subject Matter Expert for the N.A.S.A. Engineering and Safety Center. He has presented a Webinar for NSWG on “How Living Things Fail, and Why It Should Matter to Engineers,” available on the NSWG website and which we regard as closely related to the umbrella of Systems Pathology. His focus is on medical (anatomic/clinical) pathology. Although an UG EE, he does not consider himself an SE but thinks the systems perspective would be a help to failure analysis.

Dr. Heidi L. Davidz is a Systems Engineer for Aerojet Rocketdyne in West Palm Beach, Fl. Previously she was Discipline Lead in Systems Engineering at UTC Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. Her Ph.D. education was at MIT (BS in Mechanical; MS in Aerospace). She has witnessed and documented patterns of failure in SE execution through her dissertation work and her work at several companies. 

Dr. Polinho Katina, BSc, MEng Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Centers for System of Systems Engineering at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in SE. His research focused on the relationship between Systems Theory and Problem Formulation for governance of complex systems.

Dr. Len Troncale is Professor Emeritus and Past Chair, Biological Sciences and Founding Director Emeritus of the Institute for Advanced Systems Studies, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA. He was also past Managing Director of the Int’l Society for General Systems Research (SGSR) and past President of the Int’l Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). He is lead for two of the official INCOSE-SSWG ongoing projects.

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[Jack Ring]

Great points. Helps clarify the issues.

I am not suggesting dialog on ‘improving health’ or ‘monitoring health’ until we have a specification of the 'existence of health and not health.' 

The World Health Org. does not, i.e, 

"The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense in its 1948 constitution as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."^[2][3] This definition has been subject to controversy, in particular as lacking operational value, the ambiguity in developing cohesive health strategies, and because of the problem created by use of the word "complete".^[4][5][6] Other definitions have been proposed, among which a recent definition that correlates health and personal satisfaction.^[7] [8]Classification systems such as the WHO Family of International Classifications, including the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health(ICF) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), are commonly used to define and measure the components of health.”

An example of the need for a specification of a healthy system is highlighted by those who are concerned with evolving a system (as in Clayton Christenson’s Disruptive Innovation) because an example of a ‘pathology’ may be simply a discontinuance of an unwanted behavior, therefore an improvement.

I am saying that we need to address “When is a configuration a system and not a system” and suggesting that the criteria of Fit For Purpose will be one perspective.

In my understanding this point has been made by Derek Cabrera for several years and is addressed in the P of DSRP.

Make sense?

Jack

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[Steven Krane]

A specification of system health will include a description of

1)  defects, faults, and failures (analysis)

2)  the conditions that reduce the need to know about (1) above (synthesis)

[James Martin]

Defects, faults and failures are typically only looking inward to what makes a system fall apart on its own.

Also need to look at how well the system fends off threats to its viability and existence. The field of systems resilience has methods for dealing with "assurance" of mission continuity.

Cyber security is a special case of system resilience where the kinds of threats being addressed are cyber threats.

James

James

[Jack Ring]

James,

Perhaps "All of the above”

First, however, you have to have a basis for deciding whether a ‘system’ is compromised or not. 

Was heist 'healthy system?'

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[Lenard Troncale]

For those of us not following Cabrera, please give us a short definition of DSRP. Is it like or unlike Martin’s PICARD?

Len

[James Martin]

Len,

In only two seconds you could have discovered the answer to your question with this from google:

DSRP is a theory and method of thinking, developed by educational theorist and cognitive scientist Derek Cabrera. It is an acronym that stands for Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, and Perspectives.

>> at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSRP

I encourage all of us to not clutter this list with simple questions that can easily be found with a very quick search. We all get plenty of email messages that we have to wade through, so it is only a matter of courtesy to try to limit the unnecessary traffic.

Regards,

James

James