TY - GEN
T1 - Supporting the Implementation of Engineering Change Management with the Viable System Model
AU - Wilberg, Julian
AU - Tommelein, Iris D.
AU - Elezi, Fatos
AU - Lindemann, Udo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.
PY - 2016/1/12
Y1 - 2016/1/12
N2 - Engineering change management (ECM) is crucial for the overall success of engineering projects in general. Engineering changes (ECs) are required to react to internal and external dynamic influences surrounding projects. Proper implementation of ECM supports projects in coordinating EC processes, which results in more efficient operations. There are, however, many challenges when it comes to implementing ECM in an organization. One of the identified challenges is that there are no approaches that address and support the implementation of ECM from systemic perspective. In this paper such an approach is introduced, based on the Viable System Model (VSM). For this, functional abstraction is used as a research methodology to derive a functional description of the as-is ECM control system and the should-be one. Comparing both reveals the potential to improve the as-is ECM. The developed approach is then applied in a case study to describe how it supports ECM. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.
AB - Engineering change management (ECM) is crucial for the overall success of engineering projects in general. Engineering changes (ECs) are required to react to internal and external dynamic influences surrounding projects. Proper implementation of ECM supports projects in coordinating EC processes, which results in more efficient operations. There are, however, many challenges when it comes to implementing ECM in an organization. One of the identified challenges is that there are no approaches that address and support the implementation of ECM from systemic perspective. In this paper such an approach is introduced, based on the Viable System Model (VSM). For this, functional abstraction is used as a research methodology to derive a functional description of the as-is ECM control system and the should-be one. Comparing both reveals the potential to improve the as-is ECM. The developed approach is then applied in a case study to describe how it supports ECM. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.
KW - Engineering change management
KW - Management Cybernetics
KW - Organizational Cybernetics
KW - Viable System Model
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84964561148
U2 - 10.1109/SMC.2015.137
DO - 10.1109/SMC.2015.137
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84964561148
T3 - Proceedings - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2015
SP - 731
EP - 736
BT - Proceedings - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2015
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2015
Y2 - 9 October 2015 through 12 October 2015
ER -