Strengthening the generative power of a scientific and industrial ecosystem: the case of the SystemX Institute for Technological Research (IRT), a "double impact Research and Technology Organization (RTO)"?

International audienceResearch and Technology Organizations (RTOs) are agents which conduct ‘extra-university research’ at the boundary between industry and science, acting as an intermediary between the two. Their expected impact is primarily industrial: they are supposed to support and enhance the competitiveness and innovation capabilities of industry. RTOs position of intermediary between science and industry is delicate, since their role is neither to substitute for the industrial partners who conduct their NPD projects and develop innovations, nor to substitute for the conduct of basic research by universities. In particular, one major pitfall for RTO pointed out by the literature is the risk that the outputs of RTOs activities are too research-oriented and fail to meet industrial needs. In this context, the literature tends to recommend that to remain manageable, the intermediation role of RTO between science and industry should be limited to situations of low/moderate uncertainty. The resulting impacts will be modest, but under control for the RTO and highly-valued by industrial firms. This paper focuses on the French IRT (Institute for Technological Research) SystemX that seems to stand out within the portray of RTOs. Created in 2012, SystemX conducts collaborative research projects aimed at accompanying and accelerating the transformation of industrial sectors in the face the digital transition. Internally, SystemX has intuited that it is inventing a new form of science-industry coupling. Thus, this paper involves mobilizes the theoretical frameworks of design theory, with the aim of characterizing SystemX model of action within its industrial and scientific ecosystem, and testing the hypothesis according to which SystemX has developed capabilities to manage situations the level of uncertainty of which goes beyond moderate uncertainty. The study reveals that SystemX manages science-industry couplings which do not only involve moderate uncertainty, but also unknowns, associated with which there is a high potential of ‘double impact’ (simultaneously a scientific and an industrial impact). SystemX is able to articulate the action model associated with these science-industry couplings in the unknown with three other action models (involving lower degrees of unknown). An in-depth case study focusing on one SystemX project shows that the implementation of the four action models and their articulation requires methodical and progressive processes of structuring and creating knowledge: these processes allow the construction (and not the simple identification) of common locks and new disciplines in the unknown. These could be seen as first insights regarding the conditions required for ‘double impact RTOs’

Renovating engineering departements' creation heritage to meet contemporary challenges: frugal validation patterns and constructive proof logics for new engineering rules

International audienceEngineering departments design infrastructure by applying rule systems. The latter are an old creation heritage, based on decades of engineering, that makes it possible to design and govern the operation of the physical heritage which is the infrastructure. Replacing the infrastructure is not sustainable in the meaning of grand challenges; renovating it by applying engineering rules is but could appear too expensive. The literature highlights situations where renovation by respecting the state of the art is too costly and so is the validation of new renovation rules. Are there forms of frugal validation that allow for sustainable renovation of existing systems? This paper tries to explore a third way, a renovation of the physical heritage from a renovation of the system of rules, conceiving in the system of rules, new propositions, and their validation. Using the C-K theory, a case analysis was performed within the French national rail network manager (SNCF Network), a company that has a historical engineering heritage and is at the same time implementing a renovation of it. The paper shows that the renovation of engineering departments' creation heritage can go through frugal validation patterns and constructive proof logics

Renovating engineering departements' creation heritage to meet contemporary challenges: frugal validation patterns and constructive proof logics for new engineering rules

International audienceEngineering departments design infrastructure by applying rule systems. The latter are an old creation heritage, based on decades of engineering, that makes it possible to design and govern the operation of the physical heritage which is the infrastructure. Replacing the infrastructure is not sustainable in the meaning of grand challenges; renovating it by applying engineering rules is but could appear too expensive. The literature highlights situations where renovation by respecting the state of the art is too costly and so is the validation of new renovation rules. Are there forms of frugal validation that allow for sustainable renovation of existing systems? This paper tries to explore a third way, a renovation of the physical heritage from a renovation of the system of rules, conceiving in the system of rules, new propositions, and their validation. Using the C-K theory, a case analysis was performed within the French national rail network manager (SNCF Network), a company that has a historical engineering heritage and is at the same time implementing a renovation of it. The paper shows that the renovation of engineering departments' creation heritage can go through frugal validation patterns and constructive proof logics

Innovation to maintain complex systems for transitions: organizing for innovative validation

International audienc

Innovation to renovate complex systems for transitions: organizing for innovative validation

International audienc

Strengthening the generative power of a scientific and industrial ecosystem: the case of the SystemX Institute for Technological Research (IRT), a "double impact Research and Technology Organization (RTO)"?

International audienceResearch and Technology Organizations (RTOs) are agents which conduct ‘extra-university research’ at the boundary between industry and science, acting as an intermediary between the two. Their expected impact is primarily industrial: they are supposed to support and enhance the competitiveness and innovation capabilities of industry. RTOs position of intermediary between science and industry is delicate, since their role is neither to substitute for the industrial partners who conduct their NPD projects and develop innovations, nor to substitute for the conduct of basic research by universities. In particular, one major pitfall for RTO pointed out by the literature is the risk that the outputs of RTOs activities are too research-oriented and fail to meet industrial needs. In this context, the literature tends to recommend that to remain manageable, the intermediation role of RTO between science and industry should be limited to situations of low/moderate uncertainty. The resulting impacts will be modest, but under control for the RTO and highly-valued by industrial firms. This paper focuses on the French IRT (Institute for Technological Research) SystemX that seems to stand out within the portray of RTOs. Created in 2012, SystemX conducts collaborative research projects aimed at accompanying and accelerating the transformation of industrial sectors in the face the digital transition. Internally, SystemX has intuited that it is inventing a new form of science-industry coupling. Thus, this paper involves mobilizes the theoretical frameworks of design theory, with the aim of characterizing SystemX model of action within its industrial and scientific ecosystem, and testing the hypothesis according to which SystemX has developed capabilities to manage situations the level of uncertainty of which goes beyond moderate uncertainty. The study reveals that SystemX manages science-industry couplings which do not only involve moderate uncertainty, but also unknowns, associated with which there is a high potential of ‘double impact’ (simultaneously a scientific and an industrial impact). SystemX is able to articulate the action model associated with these science-industry couplings in the unknown with three other action models (involving lower degrees of unknown). An in-depth case study focusing on one SystemX project shows that the implementation of the four action models and their articulation requires methodical and progressive processes of structuring and creating knowledge: these processes allow the construction (and not the simple identification) of common locks and new disciplines in the unknown. These could be seen as first insights regarding the conditions required for ‘double impact RTOs’

Design methods for Diagnosing and Locating Entangled Technical Debt in DevOps frameworks

In the IT landscape, DevOps is the preferred approach for developing and maintaining rapidly evolving systems that require continuous improvements. Yet, DevOps frameworks do not entirely prevent the accumulation of Technical Debt (TD), and under certain circumstances DevOps can even contribute to generating TD. This paper focuses on a specific type of TD, Entangled Technical Debt (ETD), that corresponds to the implicit complexification of a system’s design and the appearance of unintentional couplings in its architecture over time. Our work seeks to inform methods for Diagnosing and Locating ETD in DevOps frameworks. Through a research partnership with Ubisoft’s IT branch, an experimental case-study was conducted. It takes the form of an assessment of 6 innovative IT projects and a subsequent in-depth architecture analysis of an individual IT system, which enabled the characterization of the mechanisms linking DevOps to ETD. This allowed us to develop and test practical methods for diagnosing and locating ETD in IT systems