The Systems Engineers and the Elephant
My friend Ron Carter, who is a Systems Engineer, commissioned me to illustrate his reworking of the poem "The Blind Man and the Elephant" by John Godfrey Saxe. 
The boss cried "What I need is an elephant! It's the most amazing thing! I just got back from India and the thing can do anything. It's strong and gentle. It can lift logs and crush peanuts. It's sturdy yet mobile. Get me an elephant!" The Systems Engineers gathered together and said "You heard it. We have a Mission Statement and Operational Requirements Definition. Time to define the system boundaries, create our Work Breakdown Structure and organize ourselves into Integrated Product Teams." So they defined the major segments: Structures (body), Mobility (legs), Sensors (ears and eyes), Continuum Manipulator (trunk), Lift (tusks), Power and Electrical, Controls (brain). They happily created a System Specification and Segment Specifications for each of the major segments. They derived requirements, wrote test cases, documented their high level and detailed design. They had the most beautiful collection of Systems Engineering products ever seen. They wrote papers and presented at conferences. They won awards! Then it got exciting! They started developing real products. Amazing engineering feats! They did lab tests, stress tests, environmental tests and even field tests. They got stock options. The were awarded patents, wrote more papers and presented at more conferences. And then...they had to put it together...
The boss came, took one look and said "I thought I asked for an elephant".
The boss cried "What I need is an elephant! It's the most amazing thing! I just got back from India and the thing can do anything. It's strong and gentle. It can lift logs and crush peanuts. It's sturdy yet mobile. Get me an elephant!" The Systems Engineers gathered together and said "You heard it. We have a Mission Statement and Operational Requirements Definition. Time to define the system boundaries, create our Work Breakdown Structure and organize ourselves into Integrated Product Teams." So they defined the major segments: Structures (body), Mobility (legs), Sensors (ears and eyes), Continuum Manipulator (trunk), Lift (tusks), Power and Electrical, Controls (brain). They happily created a System Specification and Segment Specifications for each of the major segments. They derived requirements, wrote test cases, documented their high level and detailed design. They had the most beautiful collection of Systems Engineering products ever seen. They wrote papers and presented at conferences. They won awards! Then it got exciting! They started developing real products. Amazing engineering feats! They did lab tests, stress tests, environmental tests and even field tests. They got stock options. The were awarded patents, wrote more papers and presented at more conferences. And then...they had to put it together... The boss came, took one look and said "I thought I asked for an elephant".
