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Systems Engineering ('''SE''') is an Interdisciplinary field of Engineering , that focuses on the development and organization of complex artificial System s. Systems Engineering Integrates other disciplines and Specialty groups into a team effort, forming a structured development Process that proceeds from concept to Production to Operation and disposal. Systems Engineering considers both the Business and the technical needs of all Customer s, with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user needs.1 HISTORY The important concept of Systems Engineering, that of perceiving whole as against parts, goes back at least to Aristotle .2, and was probably applied to every complex system that was ever built. Mention of the term ''Systems Engineering'' can be traced back3 to Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1940 s. The need to identify properties of a system as a whole, which in complex engineering projects may greatly differ from the sum of its parts, motivated the Department Of Defense , NASA , and related industries to acknowledge and use Systems Analysis . When it was no longer possible to rely on design evolution to improve upon a system, and the existing tools were not sufficient to meet growing demands, new methodologies began to develop that addressed the complexity head on.4 The evolution of Systems Engineering as it continues to this day, comprises development and identification of new methods and modelling techniques: methods that can aid in better comprehension of engineering systems as they grow more complex. Some popular tools often used in the Systems Engineering context such as UML , QFD , IDEF0 were developed during these times. In 1990 , a professional society for systems engineering, the ''National Council on Systems Engineering'' (NCOSE), was founded by representatives from a number of US corporations and organizations. NCOSE was created to address the need for improvements in systems engineering practices and education. As a result of growing involvement from systems engineers outside of the U.S., the name of the organization was changed to the International Council On Systems Engineering (INCOSE) in 1995 .5 Schools in several countries offer graduate programs in systems engineering, and Continuing Education options are also available for practicing engineers6. CONCEPT Systems Engineering signifies both an approach and, more recently, as a discipline in engineering. The aim of education in Systems Engineering is to simply formalize the approach and in doing so, identify new methods and research opportunities similar to the way it occurs in other fields of engineering. As an approach, Systems Engineering is holistic and interdisciplinary in flavor. Holistic view SE 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 (, and VEE Model 13. Interdisciplinary field System development often requires contribution from diverse technical disciplines.14 In order to gain such expertise, a systems engineer is often a traditional engineer with expertise in one field, and knowledge of other fields including management and business processes. This helps in integration of subsystems and validation of requirements. By providing a systems (holistic) view of the development effort, SE helps meld all the technical contributors into a unified team effort, forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to production to operation and, in some cases, through to termination and disposal. This perspective is often replicated in educational programs in that Systems Engineering courses are taught by faculty from other engineering departments which, in effect, helps create an interdisciplinary environment1516. Managing complexity The need for systems engineering arose with the increase in complexity of systems and projects. When speaking in this context, complexity is not limited to engineering systems but also to human organizations; at the same time, a system can become more complex not only due to increase in size — as in the '', '' System Dynamics '', '' Systems Analysis '', '' Statistical Analysis '', '' Reliability Analysis '', and '' Decision Making ''17. Taking an Interdisciplinary approach to engineering systems is inherently complex, since the Behavior of and interaction among system components are not always Well Defined or understood (at least at the outset). Defining and characterizing such Systems and subsystems, and the interactions among them, is one of the goals of systems engineering. In doing so, the gap that exists between informal requirements from users, operators, and marketing organizations, and technical specifications that an engineer can implement is successfully bridged. Scope One way to understand the motivation behind systems engineering is to see it as a method, or practice, to identify and improve common rules that exist within a wide variety of systems. Keeping this in mind, the principles of Systems Engineering — holism, emergence, behavior, boundary, et al — can be applied to any system, complex or otherwise, provided Systems Thinking is employed at all levels.18 Besides defense and aerospace, many information and technology based companies, software development firms, and industries in the field of electronics & communications require Systems engineers as part of their team19. An analysis by the INCOSE Systems Engneering center of excellence (SECOE) indicates that optimal effort spent on Systems Engineering is about 15-20% of the total project effort. At the same time, studies have shown that Systems Engineering essentially leads to reduction in costs among other benefits.20 However, no quantitative survey at a larger scale encompassing a wide variety of industries has been conducted until recently. Such studies are underway to determine the effectiveness and quantify the benefits of Systems engineering. 21 22 Systems engineering encourages the use of modeling and simulation to validate assumptions or theories on systems and the interactions within them.2324 Use of methods that allow early detection of possible failures ( Safety Engineering ) are integrated into the design process. At the same time, decisions made at the beginning of a project whose consequences are not clearly understood can have enormous implications later in the life of a system, and it is the task of the modern systems engineer to explore these issues and make critical decisions. There is no method which guarantees that decisions made today will still be valid when a system goes into service years or decades after it is first conceived but there are techniques to support the process of systems engineering. Examples include the use of soft systems methodology, Jay Wright Forrester 's System Dynamics method and the Unified Modeling Language (UML), each of which are currently being explored, evaluated and developed to support the engineering decision making process. EDUCATION Education in Systems engineering is often seen as an extension to the regular engineering courses25, reflecting the industry attitude that engineering students need a foundational background in one of the traditional engineering disciplines (e.g. electrical engineering) plus practical, real-world experience in order to be effective as systems engineers. Undergraduate university programs in systems engineering are rare. INCOSE maintains a continuously updated Directory of Systems Engineering Academic Programs worldwide. As of 2006, there are about 75 institutions in United States that offer 130 undergraduate and graduate programs in Systems engineering. Education in Systems engineering can be taken as ''SE-centric'' or ''Domain-centric''. ''SE-centric'' programs treat Systems engineering as a separate discipline and all the courses are taught focusing on Systems engineering practice and techniques. ''Domain-centric'' programs offer Systems engineering as an option that can be exercised with another major field in engineering. Both these patterns cater to educate the systems engineer who is able to oversee interdisciplinary projects with the depth required of a core-engineer. 26 Specific degrees in the field include:
TOOLS AND WORK Systems Engineering tools are Strategies , Procedure s, and Technique s that aid in performing systems engineering on a Project or Product . The purpose of these tools vary from database management, graphical browsing, simulation, and reasoning, to document production, neutral import/export and more27. The systems engineering process Depending on their application, tools are used for various stages of the Systems Engineering Process . Tools for graphic representations Initially, when the primary purpose of a systems engineer is to comprehend a complex problem, graphic representations of a system are used to communicate a system's functional and data requirements28. Common graphical representations include:
A graphical representation relates the various subsystems or parts of a system through functions, data, or interfaces. Any or each of the above methods are used in an industry based on its requirements. For instance, the N2 chart may be used where interfaces between systems is important. Part of the design phase is to create structural and behavioral models of the system. Once the requirements are understood, it is now the responsibility of a Systems engineer to refine them, and to determine, along with other engineers, the best technology for a job. At this point starting with a trade study, systems engineering encourages the use of weighted choices to determine the best option. A Decision Matrix , or Pugh method, is one way ( QFD is another) to make this choice while considering all criteria that are important. The trade study in turn informs the design which again affects the graphic representations of the system (without changing the requirements). In an SE process, this stage represents the iterative step that is carried out until a feasible solution is found. A decision matrix is often populated using techniques such as statistical analysis, reliability analysis, system dynamics (feedback control), and optimization methods. At times a systems engineer must assess the existance of feasible solutions, and rarely will customer inputs arrive at only one. Some customer requirements will produce no feasible solution. Constraints must be traded to find one or more feasible solutions. The customers' wants become the most valuable input to such a trade and cannot be assumed. Those wants/desires may only be discovered by the customer once the customer finds that he has overconstrained the problem. Most commonly, many feasible solutions can be found, and a sufficient set of constraints must be defined to produce an optimal solution. This situation is at times advantagous because one can present an opportunity to improve the design towards one or many ends, such as cost or schedule. Various modeling methods can be used to solve the problem including constraints and a cost function. Systems Modeling Language (SysML), a modeling language used for systems engineering applications, supports the specification, analysis, design, verification and validation of a broad range of complex systems.29 CLOSELY RELATED FIELDS Many related fields may be considered tightly coupled to systems engineering. These areas have contributed to the development of systems engineering as a distinct entity.
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REFERENCES FURTHER READING See also
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