Our Defintion of Systems Engineering

Our Definition of Systems Engineering Despite 30 years of history, systems engineering still means many things to many people (but, actually, the same is true of Civil Engineerin and it's been around for centuries). I happen to like: Systems engineering supports the evolution of information, punctuated by decision making. A few of the most commonly used texts contain at least 20-30 definitions of systems engineering. At first this leads you to believe that "systems engineering is all things to all people," which of course runs the danger of delivering almost nothing to most. To avoid falling into that trap, we are very explicit about what systems engineering means to us: Methodologies and tools for the front-end synthesis of large-scale engineering systems, supported by appropriate information abstractions, models, and advanced techniques for manipulating information. For this "working definition" and vision to be realized, we need: Methodologies for the synthesis of systems from modular components; Support for team developments; Ways to handles large volumes of heterogeneous data and, of cource; Procedures for quantitative decision making. The "front-end" part of our definition and focus is key because this is where decisions have the largest impact on commitment of funds in a project and, also, greatest opportunity for improvements. Why Systems Engineering is Important? Over the past fifteen years there have been several important reasons and developments that have rendered systems engineering methodologies, tools, and educational programs critical. They are: Rapid changes in technology; Fast time-to-market most critical; Increasing pressure to lower costs; Increasing higher performance requirements; Increasing complexity of systems/products; Increased presence of embedded information and automation systems; and Failures due to lack of systems engineering. 70% of product and system failures are due to bad or no Systems Engineering effort, as our industry advisors (General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman) and collaborators have frequently stated.

Section 1-1: April, 2003.