If no one has the big picture, systems engineering is not doing its job. Systems engineering is supposed to flow the top-level specs down to the various teams,

If no one has the big picture, systems engineering is not doing its job. Systems engineering is supposed to flow the top-level specs down to the various teams, If those teams have issues with their requirements, they flow that back up. That is, of course, easier said than done. I have had to deal with my share of unrealistic flow-downs and unsympathetic systems engineers. In this particular case at VW the most likely root cause was a team that had a flow-down they couldn't meet honestly and couldn't change, so they cheated their way around it.