Systems Engineering Fundamentals

This Knowledge Area (KA) provides a guide to knowledge about systems which form the foundations for systems thinking and hence for the related worlds of Interdisciplinary systems science and systems approaches to Practice.

This knowledge is not specific to SE, but is part of a wider systems body of knowledge. The SEBoK does not capture all of the system knowledge here; rather, it identifies those aspects relevant to the SEBoK.

To download a PDF of all of Part 2 (including this knowledge area), please click here.

Topics

The following topics are part of the Systems Fundamentals knowledge area:

• What is a System?
• Types of Systems
• Groupings of Systems
• Complexity
• Emergence

Introduction

The word system is used in many areas of human activity and at many levels. But what do people mean when they use the word “system” and is there some part of that meaning which is common to all applications? In this KA we will consider the origins of the term system and the full scope of its use from abstract ideas and concepts, through aspects of the natural world or human society, to technological artifacts.

In particular we will introduce the idea of an engineered system encompassing combinations of technology and people, in the context of natural, social, business, public or political environments. The application of the Systems Approach Applied to Engineered Systems requires both the ability to position problems or oppourtunities in the wider system containing them, to create or change a specific engineered System of Interest (glossary) and to understand and deal with the the consequences of these changes in appropriate wider system. The concept of a system context allows all of the system elements and relationships needed to support this to be identified. To help provide a focus for the discussions of how SE is applied to real world problems three engineered system contexts are introduced in the KA:

• product system Context
• service system Context
• enterprise system Context

The discussions of engineered system contexts includes the concept of a system of systems (sos) context to help deal with situations in which the elements of an engineered system are themsleves independent engineered systems.

It is these systems which will be the focus of the other KA in Part 2. Two particular aspects of systems, Compexity (glossary) and emergence , are described in this KA. Between them these two concepts represent many of the challenges which drive the need for Systems Thinking and hence are of particular relevance to both the evolution of Systems Science and applied Systems Approaches.

References

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Primary References

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SEBoK v. 1.9.1 released 30 September 2018

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