Considerations regarding system engineering in large scale projects with heterogeneous contexts

In this paper we would like to share some considerations and lessons learned based on our direct experience as system engineer at the SKA project, with emphasis in the personal experiences of the first author. This is a very wide and ambitious program, which involves several stakeholders with a level of heterogeneity in cultural backgrounds, technological heritages, multidisciplinary interplays, motivations and competences without precedents. The role of the leading author is to amalgamate efforts in order to deliver the "MID telescope" and in that role, he has often discovered that, Systems Engineering means far more than purely a disciplined sets of processes.