Importance of Systems Engineering in Today’s Design Environment

The design environment of today is more complex than ever, be it electronic systems, mechanical systems or other. System complexity is at an all-time high, and technology advances are continuously increasing the complexity. Further, new systems that must interface or interact with existing or “legacy” systems pose even more challenges. Systems Engineering is the discipline that addresses the complex challenges of today’s systems and systems-of-systems, and this lecture provides an overview of what systems engineering is and how it handles the design environment to help assure success rather than failure. The lecture addresses the key principles of systems engineering, including requirements development and the analysis of the true need for the new system, stakeholder involvement, system architectures, hardware vs. software function allocations, the concept of “balanced design”, concept development, the importance of a concept of operation, manufacturing, life cycle considerations, logistics, reliability vs. maintainability, operations and training, system upgrades, and eventual disposal. It also covers risk management and the importance of this activity to assure success.