Overloading CASE

In the engineering arena, we think of software when we see the acronym CASE.

Barry E. White (MITRE) is using it as a combination of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and Systems Engineering...Complex Adaptive Systems Engineering. I had not seen any of his work when I last visited this topic.

This presentation and paper are a recent discussion of the topic. In the presentation, I like White's highlighting of the importance of non-technical factors, and I especially like the Enterprise Systems Engineering and Systems Engineering profilers (slides 20, 21). I'm a bit puzzled by the inclusion of an Enneagram Web...its origin in what appears to be mysticism seems to clash with the rest of the presentation. The paper strikes a more serious tone...its discussion of the limits of control and the importance of context are applicable to any large scale architecting/design effort.

Regardless, it's nice to see a CAS-oriented discussion of systems engineering.