Introduction to Systems Engineering

This e-book provides a basic coverage of the discipline known as systems engineering. The e-book supports the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that the authors deliver regularly through the Coursera platform and is an overview of our more-comprehensive physical text “Systems Engineering Practice”, also published by Argos Press. Here, we offer a framework encapsulating the entire systems engineering discipline, clearly showing where the multitude of associated activities fits within the overall effort, providing an ideal vehicle for understanding the complex discipline.

Chapter 1 introduces systems, systems engineering and related issues and Chapter 2 provides an overview of requirements-engineering and its application to systems development. Chapters 3 and 4 examine in more detail the issues associated with Conceptual Design and Preliminary Design. Emphasis is given to these early activities, as they have the greatest impact on the system development. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 deal with respectively Detailed Design and Development, Construction and/or Production, and Operational Use and Support. Chapter 8 deals with the broad topic of systems engineering management and details some of the associated activities.