A Consensus Facilitated by
Terry Bahill
Systems and Industrial Engineering
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0020, USA
terry@sie.arizona.edu
http://www.sie.arizona.edu/sysengr/slides/whatis.ppt
© 1994-2004 Bahill
Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary process that ensures
that the customer's needs are satisfied throughout a system's
entire life cycle. This process is comprised of the following
seven functions:
Stating the problem, which includes understanding customer needs,
discovering system requirements and validating requirements;
Investigating alternatives, which includes defining quantitative measures;
Modeling the system, which includes functional decomposition, system design,
sensitivity analyses, risk management, and reliability analysis;
Integrating the system, which includes designing and managing interfaces;
Launching the system, which includes configuration management,
project management, documentation and leading teams;
Assessing performance, which includes prescribing tests, conducting reviews,
verifying requirements and total system test; and
Re-evaluating and improving quality.
The purpose of Systems Engineering is to increase a system's probability
of success, reduce risk, and reduce total-life-cycle cost. The
Systems Engineering process can be applied to most projects, but
it must be tailored for each.
Reference [55 and 79]. This lecture is suitable for engineers
or the general public. This talk requires an overhead projector
(or PowerPoint and a computer projection system). This talk takes
90 minutes. This presentation is on video tape.