Systems Engineering 210

Systems Engineering 210 teaches concepts and develops real-world skills in the area of requirements development and management within the systems engineering discipline. This is a three-day course built around an integrated hands-on case study in which students who are already practicing systems engineers, apply the skills they learn during the lecture part of the course. Even though this was a ‘revision’, about 80% of the course was rewritten. We also rebuilt the case study so that it was more hands-on and relate better to the course content and added pre-reading materials with pre-work to be completed before coming to the class.

I enjoyed working on this project because of the high degree of technical comprehension needed. With my science background and coming off the non-engineer and beginner (100 level) courses, I felt I was able to easily grasp many of the concepts and create meaningful media to be used in the course. 

 Role: Lead Instructional Designer

• Manage work to baselined project plan.
• Support training analysis, design, development, review, and evaluation activities.
• Ensure project deliverables and services meet or exceed customer expectations as measured by any or all of the following: response to customer satisfaction surveys or inquiries, anecdotal customer feedback, and evaluation results.
• Anticipated pitfalls, mitigating and communicating implementation risks to lead.
• Work seamlessly with project lead to address customer concerns and needs.

Project Challenges/Issues & Solutions

 Challenge: Customer wanted the case study to be more realistic where answers are not ’canned’  or predictable.

Solution: Working very closely with our team of SMEs, we formulated the case study so that it allows for many different results. Under the guidance of an experienced instructor, the class will discuss each result and learn from the mistakes and best practices of each group.

Challenge: Working with a team of highly experience SMEs who are located in various locations around the country, getting to a consensus about a topic can be difficult at times.

Solution: Held conference calls that everyone attends to hash out the issues together. This worked very well as the SMEs can work out their concerns verbally and come to an agreement.

 

Systems Engineering Series WBT

As a provider of scientific, engineering, systems integration and technical services solutions, systems engineering is a core discipline practiced across the company. Most projects involve the close collaboration of systems engineers and non-systems engineers. Because of the complexity of the engineering field, team members that are not systems engineers sometimes are not aware of how their role interacts or intertwines with systems engineering. To address this, the customer wanted a WBT course that introduces non-systems engineers to the systems engineering discipline.

This was an interesting and difficult project. We had little material to start with and basically started from scratch. Our SMEs are longtime experts in the field, having 15-30 years of experience, their world is systems engineering. Getting from them that perfect amount of information that will educate a non engineer and at the same time not put them to sleep or overload them with information was a delicate balancing act. At some point, I felt I could almost be a systems engineer myself. “Almost” This was a project where I was able to see the power of the ADDIE model (analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation).

Role: Instructional Designer

• Develop high quality, creative WBT courses to meet customer needs and expectations.
• Met with customer to address client needs and ensure customer satisfaction.
• Demonstrate technology capability to broaden customer understanding encourage acceptance.
• Provide various solutions and alternatives to address issues and potential problems with initial training plan as scope of project and customer needs changes.
• Provide and assist customer with long-term implementation process and coordination of duplication and distribution of training materials.

Project Challenges/Issues & Solution

Challenge: Main question, “What to teach, and how much?”

Solution: After careful analysis we decided upon six hourlong WBT modules that covered the major aspects of systems engineering. Each module is standalone and could be taken individually and separately, out of sequence if desired.

Challenge: SMEs are experts that know almost ‘too much’ about everything .

Solution: Using a detailed outline that we developed early in design, worked very closely with SMEs to make sure we are focused and in scope. Subjected drafts to vigorous reviews by peers.

Challenge: With various technology available to use, what is the right combination?

Solution: No two projects are the same, careful analysis of our customer’s needs, our audience and the subject matter allowed us to select the correct combination of tools to use for this project.

Systems Engineering 101 Update

This latest project is to update a 4 day instructor led course that discusses the company specific aspects of the Systems Engineering process and the roles of its systems engineers. Working in a team consisting of instructional designers and SMEs, we updated the instructor and participant course materials, case study, and jobaids.

Role: Instructional Designer

Met with customer to address client needs and ensure customer satisfaction.

Solicit and incorporate users and trainer’s post-pilot feedback to improve training materials.

Provide and assist customer with long-term implementation process and coordination of duplication and distribution of training materials.

Project Challenges/Issues & Solution:

Challenge: Large team environment.

Solution: I’ve always enjoyed working in teams, so it’s technically not a challenge, but working in teams does mean communicating more, be open about issues so they are discussed and resolved, and working collaboratively. As everyone on the team was professional and open to new ideas and opinions, it was a pleasure to work with them.