Systems engineering: my findings Nadya Spice

Wikipedia definition… “Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed. Issues such as logistics, the coordination of different teams, and automatic control of machinery become more difficult when dealing with large, complex projects. Systems engineering deals with work-processes and tools to handle such projects, and it overlaps with both technical and human- centered disciplines such as control engineering, mechatronics engineering, industrial engineering, organizational studies, and project management.”

Systems Engineering from a Requirements Engineer's Viewpoint Alternative to project management View a project as something to engineer Organization of processes Doesn’t make decisions, just designs process used to make decisions

1. Process input: – Consumer needs – Technology base – Output requirements from prior development effort 2. Requirements analysis: – Analyze missions/environments – Identify functional requirements – Design/refine performance requirements 3. Functional Analysis: – Define functional architecture – Lower level functions – Limiting requirements at all levels 4. Synthesis: – Transform functional to physical – Define alternative solutions – Select preferred product and processes – define/refine physical interfaces

Dates back to the second world war LodeStar Systems uses systems engineering to “define, analyse and design the total system environment for computer application systems.”