This is the second paper in a broader series on complexity in systems engineering, examining how complexity propagates through interfaces, Re-Use, change processes, and organizational structure.

In engineering practice, complexity is often treated as something that can be contained locally. If each subsystem meets its requirements, the overall system is assumed to remain stable.

But complexity does not remain local.

Once introduced, it propagates through interactions rather than through individual components alone. Interfaces transmit assumptions. Re-Use carries hidden applicability constraints. Change activates latent interactions. Organizational boundaries reduce system-level visibility.

The result is a recurring pattern across complex engineering programs:
– early confidence
– late instability
– integration surprises
– verification gaps
– behavior nobody explicitly intended

This whitepaper examines:
– How complexity propagates across interfaces
– Why Re-Use can become a complexity vector
– How change amplifies hidden interactions
– Why organizational structure accelerates systemic risk
– Why complexity is far easier to create than to remove

This paper builds directly on the first whitepaper in the series and establishes propagation as the mechanism that transforms manageable complexity into systemic instability.

Read full paper:   https://www.researchgate.net/publication/405092940_Propagation_of_Complexity_in_Engineering_Systems_How_Local_Decisions_Become_Systemic_Risk