7.2.0 Soft Skills – What you haven't been told about Delivering Successful Systems!
Authors: Terry Adrian , Beasley Richard , Davidz Heidi L. , van den Hoek Ostende Joyce , Glover Wiljeana 
Published: November 2014

Effective systems engineering is about understanding the right thing to do – and then making sure that the right action is taken. This certainly requires technical engineering skills and experience. However there are numerous cases where the systems engineers knew what was needed technically but failed to fully engage the wider organization or supply chain to build shared insight and release their creativity to deliver valuable systems solutions that are implemented with speed and commitment. Soft skills, such as political skills, leadership, facilitation, designing effective dialogue processes, coaching, influencing and negotiating and personal effectiveness are the critical enabling skills that ensure your wider organization implements effective systems engineering, yet these are typically poorly understood or valued by those with a hard engineering perspective.

This panel will explore required soft skills and their importance to achieving successful systems outcomes. The panel will also consider how the context may differ across application sectors: Is there a greater need for such skills in non‐traditional SE sectors (e.g., transportation and biomedical) where systems thinking and SE activities are not inherent, accepted practice? Or do overriding similarities exist for SE practitioners as they encounter colleagues/managers unaccustomed to holistic thinking and ill‐equipped for abstract, non‐linear problem‐solving?

How does the significance of soft skills modulate when transitioning from assessing individual SE practitioner competency to SE team competencies or to an organization's SE capability? How does organizational climate and culture impact the effectiveness of its SE capability and, in turn, how is that climate shaped? Ultimately what is the impact to the delivery of successful outcomes?

This panel will compare and contrast the relevant drivers for soft skills across each set of application sectors, as well as compare approaches to developing these skills within SE practitioners and across SE teams. They will debate what organizations should be doing to address these needs and seek to determine what constitutes best practice.

The panelists are a blend of both SE managers and researchers with balanced representation from traditional and non‐traditional SE application sectors, who have directly explored this topic – evaluated current practices and implemented varied approaches to assessing and enhancing soft skills development.

Participants will gain an understanding and contribute to discussion on the following:

What soft skills are needed by SE's to realise better results?

Why are they so critical to effective SE implementation and realization of successful systems outcomes?

Does the need for soft skills vary across application sectors?

Competency implications for SE teams and effective organizational SE capability

Approaches to systems thinking and soft skills development for SE practitioners

Experienced SE practitioners considering transferring their expertise to different industry sectors will gain insight regarding factors essential to successful systems outcomes.