Digital Engineering is an evolution of Systems Engineering, focusing on the use of data to enable more effective collaboration and system improvements.
An alternate definition in the Systems Engineering Book of Knowledge:
defines DE as a collaborative way of working, using digital processes to enable more productive methods of planning, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining assets.
According to Digital Engineers, an enterprise is a socio-cultural-technical system, and data is among its most critical assets, alongside knowledge. Both data and knowledge must be managed for an enterprise to advance.
Digital Engineering is model-based.
DE & Data
Data is the heart of DE.
A key goal of DE is to enable the use of high-quality data, security, and accessibility in a form that allows sharing, visualization, and analysis. It’s crucial to enable consistent, data-informed decision making.
DE & Knowledge
Alongside Data, knowledge is the most important key to successful DE. Another goal of Digital Engineering is to achieve a shared Mental Models amongst the organization. This makes new insights brought from the periphery to be more likely valid than a reflection of a misunderstanding or lack of perspective. This is done through cultural transformation, where people are encouraged and enabled to adopt new ways of thinking and working together.
Failure to address the underlying cultural shift will result in putting a new technological coat of paint on the same crumbling organizational walls.
Interoperability and Standardization
Standard Processes ensure information is used in a way that fits its intended purpose. Commonly shared digital representation forms, semantics, and vocabulary are critical