Systems Architecture and Design

In engineering, there is a wrong practice, unfortunately widespread, that consists of going straightforward from high-level requirements to technological solutions in terms of hardware, software and operations without performing architecture activities at intermediate levels, so called system levels. This practice leads to leave the system-control at the lowest level of actors, none having a real view of the system, and how it could be endowed with architectural properties to match utilisation, maintenance and disposal capabilities. The consequences are: no satisfaction, a lot of effort consumed, delays. This guideline contains what is necessary to know for defining the architecture of any kind of complex systems, level by level, from logical and physical viewpoints in order to satisfy a set of requirements. This volume, part of the series Engineering and Architecting Multidisciplinary Systems, is intended for professionals who have to conceptualize the architecture of systems, for professors and students.