SYSE 802 John D. McGregor Module 0 Session 3 Systems Engineering QuickView

System An interacting combination of elements to accomplish a defined objective. These include hardware, software, firmware, people, information, techniques, facilities, services, and other support elements.

Systems Engineering Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of successful systems. It focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in the development cycle, documenting requirements, and then proceeding with design synthesis and system validation while considering the complete problem. Systems Engineering considers both the business and the technical needs of all customers with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user needs. (INCOSE)

Engineering Use of the term “engineering” implies – Analysis – problems are decomposed into fundamental parts to make the problem easier to understand; problems are more precisely than descriptions by users – Design – solutions are defined in notations, and with precision, that allow the designs to be evaluated before they are implemented

Systems thinking A systems engineer considers the “whole”, the entire product or solution. This perspective allows the systems engineer to understand the trades made as design decisions are made. The systems engineer is an integrator of inputs from many disciplines to ensure that interactions are sufficiently closely examined.

Systems thinking - 2 Systems engineers often participate in projects where the integration is between hardware and software aspects of the product. We will spend more time on that type of project than others this semester. The systems engineer is sometimes the project manager. There is a course on project management available so we will not devote much time to those issues.

ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 15288: 2002(E) – Systems engineering – System life cycle processes To assist with product planning, ISO defines a life cycle for a product For products that include software this is particularly important since as much as 80% of costs are incurred after a product is placed in service for the first time

Product Life Cycle Concept – the light bulb of an idea Development – the details are explore Production – the product is implemented Utilization – the product is used Support – the product is repaired or extended Retirement – the product is no longer available for use

Processes The systems engineer oversees a variety of processes – Development – Acquisition – Configuration management – Verification – Maintenance

Systems engineering process an iterative process of technical management, acquisition and supply, system design, product realization, and technical evaluation at each level of the system, beginning at the top (the system level) (INCOSE)

Systems Engineering Method It is important that a systems engineer organize their work as a set of processes working across a set of lifecycle stages. It is less important exactly what those stages and processes are. We will study the activities a systems engineer undertakes as part of a product development effort. These activities will form a generic method. We will also consider how this general method can be engineered to fit the specific circumstances of each situation.

Method Engineering Method engineering is the analysis and design of methods, combinations of processes, tools, and techniques. Data collected from actual practice is used to identify places that need improvement.

Method Engineering - 2 Priorities and pressures affect the way in which activities are carried out. The training and abilities of the staff also affect the productivity of the activities. In our use of EPF we will construct fragments of processes that can be combined into complete processes. We will explore this further later.

Summary Obviously this has been a very short introduction. We will spend the entire semester elaborating on these ideas.