Using patterns to transition systems engineering from a technological to social context

In 1984 Booton and Ramo [IEEE Trans Aerospace Electron Syst AES-20 (July 1984), 306-309] wrote that the major growth of the practice of systems engineering would be in the enlargement of the range of problems to which it is applied. A casual glance at the accumulated literature on Systems Engineering suggests that the current practice remains focused on the creation of technological aspects of engineered solutions. It could be argued that a language for applying systems engineering to the social aspects of engineered solutions, or for social systems, does not exist or is not pervasive. This article suggests that, through the exercise of writing patterns and pattern languages, systems engineers may begin to transition the language of systems engineering to include both social and technological contexts. Results from pattern writing activities that took place during workshops conducted as part of INCOSE symposia in 2005 and 2006 illustrate this progression. (C) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.