An Introduction to Systems Engineering The Art of Managing Complexity

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An Introduction to Systems EngineeringThe Art
of Managing Complexity

• Presented By
• Cory R. A. Hallam
• B.Eng., M.Eng., ISU SSP, S.M.
• October 16th, 2001, for ESD.83 at MIT

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Overview

• Systems Engineering has emerged as a distinct
  professional discipline in direct response to the
  increasing complexity of new development
  projects.
• We will review some of the reasons for the
  emergence of this discipline and discuss the
  tools and methodologies that have been
  established as a means for dealing with
  increasing system complexity.

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Outline

• What is Systems Engineering?
• Emergence of the Discipline
• Role of the Systems Engineer
• The SE Process, Methodologies, and tools
• Setting standards
• SE, the ultimate solution?
• References

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What is Systems Engineering?

• It is not fundamental mathematics or strict
  laboratory science
• It is a mix of HR, project management, business,
  rational decomposition, trade studies,
  requirements traceability, integration, testing,
  verification and validation, operations, and end
  of life cycle disposal of systems
• Standardizes the flow-down and traceability of
  specifications for complex products from customer
  requirements through production, operation , and
  disposal

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What is Systems Engineering?

• 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

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What is Systems Engineering?

• Systems Engineering integrates all of 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

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Why has Systems Engineering Emerged as A Distinct
Discipline?

• The term itself was not formally used, nor was
  the importance of the concepts recognized, until
  after World War II.
• Complexity increased orders of magnitude with the
  creation of coupled mecho-digital systems,
  especially in defense (P-51 Mustang versus the
  Trident in 10 years)
• Creation of systems of systems, with users,
  acquisition, training, service, support, etc.
• Explosions N!/2(N-2)!

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Emergence of Systems Engineering Issues

• The Mythical Man-month, written by Fred Brooks,
  who was the first manager of the OS/360
  development team at IBM in the 1960's
• People seem to think that people and time are
  interchangeable and substitutable resources in
  projects
• Face it, the addition of people to a late project
  will only make it later
• In computer systems, the issue of decomposition
  and system management reared its ugly head with
  optimistic programmers saying "This time it will
  surely run," or " I just found the last bug."
• The false assumption is that things will take as
  long as they ought to take and things will work
  as planned.
• Nothing works out as planned the first time -
  Systems Engineering attempts to mitigate this
  issue

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The Role of the System Engineer

• Any engineer acts as a systems engineer when
  responsible for the design and implementation of
  a total system.
• The difference with traditional engineering
  lies primarily in the greater emphasis on
  defining goals, the creative generation of
  alternative designs, the evaluation of
  alternative designs, and the coordination and
  control of the diverse tasks that are necessary
  to create a complex system.
• The role of Systems Engineer is one of Manager
  that utilizes a structured value delivery process

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The Systems Engineering Process

• The major steps in the completion of a typical
  systems engineering project are the following
  (1) problem statement (2) identification of
  objectives (3) generation of alternatives (4)
  analysis of these alternatives (5) selection of
  one of them (6) creation of the system, and,
  finally, (7) operation.
• Some examples of Systems Engineering Process
  activities are
• Defining needs, operational concept, and
  requirements
• Functional analysis, decomposition, and
  allocation
• System modeling, systems analysis, and tradeoff
  studies
• Requirements allocation, traceability, and
  control
• Prototyping, Integration, and Verification
• System Engineering Product and Process control
• Configuration and Data Management
• Risk Management approaches
• Engineering technical reviews and their purposes

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Systems Engineering Methodologies
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Systems Engineering Methodologies
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Managing Requirements

• Decomposition techniques create chunks that can
  be handled by design teams and eventually
  individual designers

DECOMPOSITION
INTEGRATION
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Who Sets the SE Standards?

• Depends on your customer (MIL-STD, IEEE STD, Ad
  Hoc)
• Individual private programs can be managed in an
  ad-hoc manner
• Government or large corporate contracts may
  require Mil spec or other spec to ensure process
  compliance
• INCOSE

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Tools

• Functional "thread" analysis involving use of
  stimulus-condition-response threads for
  specifications, development, testing, and reviews
• N-squared charts, QFD, Timeline analysis, and
  Functional Flow Diagrams
• Activity Network Diagrams and professional
  quality project and task schedules
• Object-oriented methodologies and distributed
  networked IPDTs

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Using Systems Engineering Methodologies

• Some People think of SE tools and methodologies
  as solution providers - plug in a bunch of
  stuff and get THE answer, design, schedule,
  cost estimate, etcthis is wrong.
• Systems Engineering provides a means for
  discretizing systems problems into chunks that
  can be solved, managed, and implemented - the
  scheduling, costs, and interdisciplinary issues
  are identified, but continuously change and
  emerge

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Is Systems Engineering the Solution to all of the
Worlds Systems Problem?

• NO...
• ... but it does help manage
  some of them

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Suggestions for Further Reading

• International Council on Systems Engineering
  (INCOSE) web pages (2001), http\\www.incose.org,
  October 2001.
• Brooks, F., ( 1995 ). The Mythical Man Month
  Essays on Software
• Grady, Jeffrey O. (1994). System Integration, CRC
  Press.
• QFD - Don Clausing
• Any new text on Systems Engineering