Systems
Technology is a transdisciplinary and integrative approach to enable successful
implementation, use, and retirement of technical systems, using system
principles and concepts, and scientific, technological and management methods.
We use the
words "engineering" and "engineered" in the broadest sense
of the word: "the act of artful work to accomplish something."
"Systems engineers" may consist of one or more persons, products,
services, information, processes, and natural elements.
System technology focuses
on:
• The setting, balancing and
integrating stakeholder goals, success goals and criteria as well as defining
actual or expected customer needs, the operating concept and the required
functionality in the early phases of development;
• Determination of a
suitable life cycle model, an appropriate process approach and suitable
management structures, taking into account complexity, uncertainty, change, and
diversity;
• generate and evaluate
alternative concepts for solutions and architectures;
• Requirements regarding
referencing and modeling and the chosen structure of the solution for each
phase of the project;
• Carrying out project
synthesis as well as systematic review and validation;
• Consider the problem and
scope of solutions, consider the support systems and services required,
identify the role that parts and relationships between parts play in the
overall behavior and performance of the system, and strike a balance between
all of these factors to achieve a satisfactory outcome,
Systems Engineering offers
moderation, guidance and leadership to involve relevant disciplines and
specialization groups in a consistent approach and to create a correspondingly
structured development process that extends from the concept to production to
operation, further development and final decommissioning.
Systems engineering takes
into account both business and technical requirements of customers to provide a
high-quality solution that meets the needs of users and other stakeholders, is
suitable for the intended use, and avoids or minimizes undesired, unintended
consequences.
The aim of all system
engineering activities is risk management, including the risk of not delivering
what the customer wants and needs, the risk of late delivery, the risk of high
costs and the risk of negative unintended consequences. A measure of the
benefits of systems engineering activities is the degree to which this risk is
reduced. Conversely, the measure of acceptance of a system engineering failure
is the extent of the excessive risk it creates.
SYSTEMS
PRINCIPLES AND CONCEPTS
Systems
principles and concepts are the ways that systems thinking and the systems
sciences infuse systems engineering. Examples of some of the laws, theories and
supporting tools are mental models, system archetypes, holistic thinking,
separation of concerns, abstraction, modularity and encapsulation, causal loop
diagrams, and systems mapping. (The Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge
describes many of these, and more, at
