In Praise of the “Ologies”: A Discussion of and Framework for Using Soft Skills to Sense and Influence Emergent Behaviors in Sociotechnical Systems

Systems engineering has at its core the elucidation and instantiation of certain life‐cycle properties that help to define the system of interest. System engineers refer to these life‐cycle properties as the “ilities.” The ilities—repeatability, predictability, auditability, quality, reliability, flexibility, scalability, etc.—are nonfunctional requirements and properties that are usually used to evaluate the performance of the system, often after the system is in use. In sociotechnical systems the ilities are important, but there is another set of properties, concepts, and constructs which is derived from the social sciences and are at least as important, if not more so, than the ilities—the “ologies.” Sociotechnical enterprises represent a microsociological construct. The ologies emerge from the interaction of people in the systems and have profound implications for systems engineers and managers analyzing, designing, maintaining, and transforming such systems. Therefore, systems engineers must have an understanding of the disciplines from the social sciences, such as sociology and philosophy. This article serves as an introduction to the prevalence and importance of the social sciences to the discipline of systems engineering, offers one proposed framework for understanding the connected nature of the ologies, and provides systems‐relevant background and context provided by these sciences.