How does one go about organizing something as complicated as a
strategic-missile or space-exploration program? Stephen B. Johnson
here explores the answer--systems management--in a groundbreaking
study that involves Air Force planners, scientists, technical
specialists, and, eventually, bureaucrats. Taking a comparative
approach, Johnson focuses on the theory, or intellectual history,
of "systems engineering" as such, its origins in the Air Force's
Cold War ICBM efforts, and its migration to not only NASA but the
European Space Agency.
Exploring the history and politics of aerospace development and
weapons procurement, Johnson examines how scientists and engineers
created the systems management process to coordinate large-scale
technology development, and how managers and military officers
gained control of that process. "Those funding the race demanded
results," Johnson explains. "In response, development organizations
created what few expected and what even fewer wanted--a bureaucracy
for innovation. To begin to understand this apparent contradiction
in terms, we must first understand the exacting nature of space
technologies and the concerns of those who create them."
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