Baransel ATÇI A.Kadir VAROÐLU

Assis. Prof.of Management Assoc.Prof. of Management

Dept. of Systems Management Dept. of Systems Management

Military Academy Military Academy

INTRODUCTION

The systems engineering academic curriculum was designed in 1989 and had first implemented in 1991-1992 academic year at the Turkish Military Academy. This curriculum is unique among universities in Turkey as an undergraduate program. The need for such a program was defined after a-ten-year application of typical four-year undergraduate engineering and social science programs. The idea behind this program is to equip cadets with systems thinking and teach them to apply this notion into real military cases in their future life.

Rapidly changing technologies and conditions of war make training in today's method's a transient goal. Any specific methods in teaching will have decreasing relevance as changes occur on future battlefields. Officers must therefore , learn to learn in this environment. A system of officer education which emphasizes how-to training applicable only to present methods, means and conditions will fail to provide the needed education in Military officers corps and need to be adaptive in the uncertain future. More officers must be educated in theories and principles of systems thinking which will make them adaptive and innovative

PURPOSE OF THE ACADEMIC CURRICULUM

Traditionally, military cadets in TMA were trained in the functional areas of operation like infantry, armor, ordnance etc. After 1978, the need for functional education in engineering and social sciences was defined and engineering programs like electrical, civil, mechanical and social science programs in management, economics, law and statistics were applied. After 1985, educating military cadets in management had emerged as an idea. However, this time technical aspects of curriculum was lacking. Also, in this management curriculum, marketing and financial dimensions of the program do not fit to the requirements of military. Then, the search process brought the systems engineering program into the curriculum design agenda.

The task evaluation of military and managerial assignments has shown that teaching systems engineering process is crucial in the Military Academy, because complicated, integrated and interdependent socio-technical systems should be managed by military officers. During conceptual development of curriculum, it was seen that soft definition of systems engineering rather than weapon development process would fit to the undergraduate program design.

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

System Engineering is the application of the methods and techniques of modern science to today's problems of management decision making. Although numerous quantitative techniques and models and their applications are stressed in the courses in any engineering curriculum it should be remembered that system engineering is more than just a collection of techniques. System engineering involves a philosophy of approaching a problem in a logical manner, as does any science. An understanding of the logical, consistent, and systematic manner of problem solving employed by system engineering is even more basic to effective management than is a knowledge of the mechanics of the quantitative techniques themselves.

System Engineering is a top down, life-cycle approach to the design, development, and deployment of large-scale systems, processes or operations to meet the effective needs of users and stakeholders in a cost-effective, high quality way. It uses the engineering thought process to analyse, model and solve inter-disciplinary problems.

A CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT MODEL

As shown in the Figure-1, the starting point for TMA curriculum planning model is to define the strategic guidance. It includes the vision, purpose and mission of the TMA. The qualities of twenty-first century military leaders, the environmental conditions and experiences of TMA, and the concepts of intellectual, military and physical development are also included into the strategic guidance module. The goals of academy are specified in three categories including outcome, process and input goals. Academy goals are considered in the program development process to decide on resource allocation, incentives, policies and co-ordination across different programs. Through this process, three basic programs were created and they are academic, military and physical programs including program goals, objectives and activities.

In defining the TMA goals, the resources like cadet time/schedule, staff/faculty time and facilities/funds are utilised and the resources are determined during strategic guidance. Basic inputs to the academy goals are cadets and staff/faculty. The programs include processes like commitment to excellence, leader development and co-ordination, staff/faculty development, ethical behaviour, advising and counselling and so on.

As a result of the curriculum development model the final product which explains the general course structure of systems engineering program applied in TMA is given in the Table-1. The systems engineering is only part of the academic program in TMA. In Table-1 the courses of military and physical programs are not shown.