What is Systems Engineering?
According to the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) as posted on their website (www.incose.org): “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, then proceeding with design synthesis and system validation while considering the complete problem: • Operations • Performance • Test • Manufacturing • Cost & Schedule • Training & Support • Disposal Systems Engineering integrates all the disciplines and specialty groups into a team effort forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to production to operation. 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.
Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary approach that provides the means to enable the realisation of successful complex systems. It focuses on: • Defining & scopeing customer needs and required functionality early in the development cycle. • The development of an agreed System Specification. • The application of architectural & design skills to decompose the System Specification into a structured hierarchy of progressively smaller but cohesive sub-systems and well defined interfaces. • Continuous change, release & configuration management of the System, it’s sub systems and interfaces. • Structured validation, verification and integration of the sub-systems whilst continuously considering the complete system problem. Systems Engineering integrates all the disciplines and specialty groups into a cohesive team effort forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept, to production, to operation to end-of-life. Systems Engineering considers both the business and the
As you can see from the definition and examples above, systems include different parts that do not belong to only one engineering discipline or only one business definition. Now we know what a system can be. What is engineering? Engineering, in general, is the application of science and math to solve problems. Based on the definitions of a system and engineering, we can say that systems engineering is the application of science, math, and management knowledge to solve problems related to any system (however large or small). Systems engineering is like putting together a puzzle, matching varied pieces together to make one cohesive whole (www.graduatingengineer.com/resources/articles/20011016/Systems-Engineering). Therefore, it is a multi-disciplinary field that incorporates engineering, management, systems thinking (the ability to see the big picture) and business topics. Its main goal is to understand how a system works, and design, improve and manage that system. That means you will b
Systems engineering is focused on the design and management of complicated engineering projects, across a wide range of engineering specialties. In systems engineering, there is a combination of technical and project management skills required to complete multidisciplinary projects. Modeling, simulation, requirements analysis, project management and building consensus are all required tools in order to complete a complex project. Systems engineering was originally started in the early 1940s, out of a need to manipulate and manage a complex, interrelated system as a unit, instead of the sum of many small parts. As project scope expanded to include multiple areas, special expertise was required to coordinate the changes across multiple fields and areas of skill, for the benefit of the overall project. The development of this field was born out of a genuine need for someone with engineering education and expertise to manage all the other engineers. The National Council on Systems Engineer
Many of us already practice systems engineering, but call it something else: design or development of product, process, and service. Systems Engineering enables practicing engineers to integrate their specialties in the development of complex products and processes. It focuses on customers’ needs throughout the product life cycle of design, testing, manufacturing, operation, and future product planning. Systems Engineering enhances time, cost, and performance by enabling the engineer to function in an interdisciplinary team and by providing quantitative methods for business and technical decision making.
