systems engineering

Technique of using knowledge from various branches of engineering and science to introduce technological innovations into the planning and development stages of a system. Systems engineering was first applied to the organization of commercial telephone systems in the 1920s and '30s. Many systems-engineering techniques were developed during World War II in an effort to deploy military equipment more efficiently. Postwar growth in the field was spurred by advances in electronic systems and by the development of computers and information theory. Systems engineering usually involves incorporating new technology into complex, man-made systems, in which a change in one part affects many others. One tool used by systems engineers is the flowchart, which shows the system in graphic form, with geometric figures representing various subsystems and arrows representing their interactions. Other tools include mathematical models, probability theory, statistical analysis, and computer simulations.

Systems engineering

A management technology involving the interactions of science, an organization, and its environment as well as the information and knowledge bases that support each. The purpose of systems engineering is to support organizations that desire improved performance. This improvement is generally obtained through the definition, development, and deployment of technological products, services, or processes that support functional objectives and fulfill needs.

Systems engineering has triple bases: a physical (natural) science basis, an organizational and social science basis, and an information science and knowledge basis. The natural science basis involves primarily matter and energy processing. The organizational and social science basis involves human, behavioral, economic, and enterprise concerns. The information science and knowledge basis is derived from the structure and organization inherent in the natural sciences and in the organizational and social sciences.

Systems engineering may also be defined as management technology to assist and support policy making, planning, decision making, and associated resource allocation or action deployment. It accomplishes this by quantitative and qualitative formulation, analysis, and interpretation of the impacts of action alternatives upon the needs perspectives, the institutional perspectives, and the value perspectives of clients to a systems engineering study. Each essential phase of a systems engineering effort—definition, development, and deployment—is associated with formulation, analysis, and interpretation. These enable systems engineers to define the needs for a system, develop the system, and deploy it in an operational setting and provide for maintenance over time, all within time and cost constraints.

Contemporary systems engineering focuses on tools, methods, and metrics, as well as on the engineering of life-cycle processes that enable appropriate use of these tools to produce trustworthy systems. There is also a focus on systems management to enable the wise determination of appropriate processes. See Systems integration

Much contemporary thought concerning innovation, productivity, and quality can be cast into a systems engineering framework. This framework can be valuably applied to systems engineering in general and information technology and software engineering in particular. The information technology revolution provides the necessary tool base that, together with knowledge management–enabled systems engineering and systems management, allows the needed process-level improvements for the development of systems of all types. The large number of ingredients necessary to accomplish needed change fit well within a systems engineering framework. Systems engineering constructs are useful not just for managing big systems engineering projects according to requirements, but for creative management of the organization itself. See Information systems engineering, Large systems control theory, Quality control, Systems analysis