How to learn to ask – Part I

There are many sources for questions that can be categorized:

1. Past experience: systems, integration, programming, etc.
2. Learning from external sources: formal and informal.
3. Communicating with colleagues: meetings, brainstorming.

The first two are long term studies and help to create a good base for initiating the third.

Let’s look at the basic points where conflict can occur and where the difficult questions will arise:

1. Where different systems interact: interfaces, methodologies, etc.
2. Where there are many unknowns: missing requirements, missing solutions, “down worry attitude”
3. Where there are many owners: infrastructure, communications, inputs and outputs, etc.
4. Where the risks are greatest: performance, functionality, development, etc.

What is in common for there items? These items represent the places when more than one person can affect the outcome, where the designer / system engineer must work as a coordinator and leader. The roles of system engineer will be discussed in a future post, but lets just assume that coordination and system overall view are under the scope of responsibility. The questions at the end surround one specific theme – will this work as a system?