SYSTEMS ENGINEERING : MODULE 1–
DEFINITION AND CONCEPTS
Prepared by: Annjelyn Hazel Fabay-Mirabueno, IE, CLSSBB, ISO-IQA
WHAT IS A SYSTEM?
❖One influential systems science definition of a system comes from general system
theory (GST):
▪"A System is a set of elements in interaction." (Bertalanffy 1968)
▪“A system is a value-delivering object” (Dori 2002).
▪“A system is an array of components designed to accomplish a particular objective
according to plan” (Johnson, Kast, and Rosenzweig 1963).
▪“A system is defined as a set of concepts and/or elements used to satisfy a need or
requirement" (Miles 1973).
The International Council on Systems Engineering Handbook (INCOSE) (INCOSE 2012)
generalizes this idea of an engineered system as “an interacting combination of elements
to accomplish a defined objective. These include hardware, software, firmware, people,
information, techniques, facilities, services, and other support elements."
DEFINITION OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
▪Systems engineering is a discipline that concentrates on the design and application of
the whole (system) as distinct from the parts. It involves looking at a problem in its
entirety, taking into account all the facets and all the variables and relating the social
to the technical aspect. (Ramo 1)
▪Systems engineering is an iterative process of top-down synthesis, development, and
operation of a real-world system that satisfies, in a near optimal manner, the full
range of requirements for the system. (Eisner 2)
▪Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization
of successful systems. (INCOSE3)
ORIGINS OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
1829
• Rocket
locomotive;
progenitor of
main-line
railway motive
power
1937
• British multidisciplinary
team to
analyze the
air defense
system
1939-1945
• Bell Labs
supported
NIKE
development
1951-1980
• SAGE Air
Defense
System
defined and
managed by
MIT
1956
• Invention of
systems
analysis by
RAND
Corporation
1962
• Publication of
A
Methodology
for Systems
Engineering
1969
• Jay Forrester
(Modeling
Urban Systems
at MIT)
1994
• Perry
Memorandum
urges military
contractors to
adopt
commercial
practices such
as IEEE P1220
With the introduction of the international standard ISO/IEC 15288 in 2002, the discipline of systems
engineering was formally recognized as a preferred mechanism to establish agreement for the
creation of products and services to be traded between two enterprises – the acquirer and supplier.
2002
• Release of
ISO/IEC
15288
ORIGINS OF
SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING
KEY ELEMENTS OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
1. The system elements that compose the system may include:
❑Hardware
❑Software
❑Firmware
❑People
❑Information
❑Techniques
❑Facilities
❑Services and other support elements.
KEY ELEMENTS OF
SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING
2. A systems engineer is a
person or role who supports
this transdisciplinary
approach.
In particular, the systems
engineer often serves to
elicit and translate customer
needs into specifications
that can be realized by the
system development team.
KEY ELEMENTS OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
CONT. 1
3. In order to help realize successful systems, the systems engineer supports a set
of life cycle processes beginning early in conceptual design and continuing
throughout the life cycle of the system through its manufacture, deployment, use
and disposal.
The systems engineer must analyze, specify, design, and verify the system to ensure
that its functional, interface, performance, physical, and other quality characteristics,
and cost are balanced to meet the needs of the system stakeholders.
4. A systems engineer helps ensure the elements of the system fit together
to accomplish the objectives of the whole, and ultimately satisfy the needs of
the customers and other stakeholders who will acquire and use the
system.
TYPES OF SYSTEMS
General System
Engineered System
1.
Structures (Bridges)
1.
Products and Product Systems
2.
Clock works (Solar system)
2.
Services and Service Systems
3.
Controls (Thermostat)
4.
Open (Biological cells)
5.
Lower organisms (Plants)
6.
Animals (Birds)
7.
Man (Humans)
8.
Social (Families)
9.
Transcendental (God)
Enterprise and Enterprise System
Systems of Systems
GENERAL TYPES OF
ENGINEERED SYSTEM
OF INTEREST (SOI)
❑A technology focused product
system SoI embedded within one
or more integrated products,
❑An integrated multi-technology
product system SoI used directly
to help provide a service,
❑An enabling service system SoI
supporting multiple service
systems
❑A service system SoI created
and sustained to directly
deliver capability.
ENGINEERED SYSTEM TYPE 1 > PRODUCTS AND
PRODUCT SYSTEMS
❑The word product is defined as "a thing produced by labor or effort; or
anything produced" (Oxford English Dictionary). In a commercial sense a
product is anything which is acquired, owned and sustained by
an organization and used by an enterprise (hardware, software, information,
personnel, etc.).
❑A product system is an engineered system in which the focus of the life
cycle is to develop and deliver products to an acquirer for internal or
external use to directly support the delivery of services needed by that
acquirer.
ENGINEERED SYSTEM TYPE 2 > SERVICE AND
SERVICE SYSTEMS
❑A service can be simply defined as an act of help or assistance, or as any outcome
required by one or more users which can be defined in terms of outcomes
and quality of service without detail to how it is provided (e.g., transport,
communications, protection, data processing, etc.).
❑Services are processes, performances, or experiences that one person or
organization does for the benefit of another, such as custom tailoring a suit; cooking
a dinner to order; driving a limousine; mounting a legal defense; setting a broken
bone; teaching a class; or running a business’s information
technology infrastructure and applications.
❑Service involves deployment of knowledge and skills (competencies) that one
person or organization has for the benefit of another (Lusch and Vargo 2006), often
done as a single, customized job. To be successful, service requires substantial input
from the client and related stakeholder, often referred to as the co-creation of value
(Sampson 2001)
ENGINEERED SYSTEM TYPE 2 > SERVICE AND
SERVICE SYSTEMS
CONT.1
❑A service system is an engineered system created and sustained by
an organization that provides outcomes for clients within an enterprise.
❑A service system context contains the same kinds of system elements as a
product system context but allows greater freedom for what can be created
or changed to deliver the required service.
ENTERPRISE AND ENTERPRISE SYSTEM
❑An enterprise is one or more organizations or individuals sharing a definite
mission, goals, and objectives to offer an output such as a product or
service.
❑An enterprise system consists of a purposeful combination (network) of
interdependent resources (e.g., people; processes; organizations; supporting
technologies; and funding) that interact with each other (e.g., to coordinate
functions; share information; allocate funding; create workflows; and make
decisions) and their environment(s), to achieve business and operational
goals through a complex web of interactions distributed across geography
and time (Rebovich and White 2011).
GENERIC SYSTEM
LIFE CYCLE
MODEL