Designing Socio-technical Systems

Abstract

Technical system design processes are typically based on systems engineering vee models where designers move between functional and physical domains as they develop detailed designs of the overall system and its sub-systems and component parts. The movements between the functional and physical domains are informed by the core activities of any design process: synthesis, description, analysis and simulation, and decision-making. However, delivering socio-technical systems design mindsets, such as those needed to design multi-team systems, requires a new branch of systems science that integrates human behavior into system behavior. Design processes built on such a science would allow system designers to compare alternative solutions in terms of their anticipated performance and consider different options with respect to functions carried out by humans and machines.