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

Life cycle and processes

The needs modeling that has been discussed in this chapter is carried out during a typical development life cycle. With this in mind, consider the following development life cycle model, which was introduced in Chapter 4, Life Cycles.

Figure 6.27 – Example development life cycle model

The diagram in Figure 6.27 shows an example development life cycle that is visualized using a SysML sequence diagram. The stages in this life cycle model are those from ISO 15288 and the execution of the stages is a simple linear sequence.

The obvious place for the needs modeling to occur is during the first stage in the diagram, Concept. This is where the majority of the needs modeling will take place, but the needs will also be revisited throughout the entire life cycle as needs will change as time goes on and, very importantly, some of the contexts associated with the needs may change.

The approach to needs modeling must map onto best practice...