Systems Engineering as integrator between engineering and business

The primary aim of business is to make money from services and/or products. Increasing system complexity and level of technology of engineered systems has seen an increased integration of systems engineering and program management activities. However, at large, systems engineering and program management is still seen as separate engineering functions remaining at logger heads with systems engineering being responsible for the technical decisions and program management for the business decisions of the project. As pressure mounts on performance, schedule and cost due to the trend of better faster cheaper, integration of engineering and business towards achieving company objectives is becoming increasingly important when aiming towards business excellence. Successful integration is reliant on management support and it is therefore becoming increasingly important to include the importance of systems engineering into management training. This article subsequently discusses the importance of systems engineering as integrator between engineering and business and how the School of Engineering Management at the University of Johannesburg has included it into their management education program.