Book Image

Systems Engineering Demystified

By : Jon Holt
Book Image

Systems Engineering Demystified

By: Jon Holt

Overview of this book

Systems engineering helps us to understand, specify, and develop complex systems, and is applied across a wide set of disciplines. As systems and their associated problems become increasingly complex in this evermore connected world, the need for more rigorous, demonstrable, and repeatable techniques also increases. Written by Professor Jon Holt – an internationally recognized systems engineering expert – this book provides a blend of technical and business aspects you need to understand in order to develop successful systems. You'll start with systems engineering basics and understand the complexity, communication, and different stakeholders' views of the system. The book then covers essential aspects of model-based systems engineering, systems, life cycles, and processes, along with techniques to develop systems. Moving on, you'll explore system models and visualization techniques, focusing on the SysML, and discover how solutions can be defined by developing effective system design, verification, and validation techniques. The book concludes by taking you through key management processes and systems engineering best practices and guidelines. By the end of this systems engineering book, you'll be able to confidently apply modern model-based systems engineering techniques to your own systems and projects.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to Systems Engineering
4
Section 2: Systems Engineering Concepts
8
Section 3: Systems Engineering Techniques
14
Section 4: Next steps

Summary

In this chapter, the concept of the life cycle was explored in more detail.

Life cycles are an essential part of any systems engineering endeavor but one that is often oversimplified as they can exhibit a high level of complexity.

One of the most common incorrect assumptions that is made in the world of systems engineering is that there is only a single life cycle. There are, in fact, different life cycles that can be applied to many different aspects of systems engineering and it is therefore essential that these different life cycles are both identified and defined.

Following directly on from the point that there are multiple life cycles, these life cycles will interact with each other at different points. The concept of the life cycle interaction point was introduced, with each point showing where each life cycle interacts by identifying which stages are the start and end points for the interaction.

As with all views that comprise a model, there are structural...