Systems Engineering for Civil Timekeeping

TL;DR

This paper advocates applying systems engineering principles to unify diverse perspectives on the future of civil timekeeping, emphasizing requirements collection to facilitate consensus.

Contribution

It introduces a systems engineering framework to address conflicting visions for UTC development, focusing on structured requirements gathering.

Findings

Highlights importance of requirements collection in consensus-building

Proposes systems engineering as a solution framework

Encourages interdisciplinary collaboration in timekeeping systems

Abstract

The future of Coordinated Universal Time has been a topic of energetic discussions for more than a dozen years. Different communities view the issue in different ways. Diametrically opposed visions exist for the range of appropriate solutions that should be entertained. Rather than an insoluble quandary, we suggest that well-known systems engineering best practices would provide a framework for reaching consensus. This starts with the coherent collection of project requirements.