Systems Engineering Fundamentals

This Knowledge Area (KA) provides a guide to some of the most important knowledge about system which forms part of systems thinking and hence for the related worlds of Integrative systems science and systems approaches to Practice.

This is part of the wider systems knowledge which can help to provide a common language and intellectual foundation; and make practical systems concepts, principles, patterns and tools accessible to systems engineering as discussed in the Introduction to Part 2.

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 systems researchers and practitioners mean when they use the word “system” and is there some part of that meaning common to all applications? The following diagram summaries the ways in which this question is explored in the KA.

Figure 1. System Fundamentals and Engineered Systems. (SEBoK Original)

The notion of open system and closed system is explored. Open Systems, described by a set of elements and relationships are used to describe many real world phenomena. Two particular aspects of systems, complexity 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 an appreciation of Systems Science in Systems Engineering.

Some systems classifications, characterized by type of element or by purpose, are presented.

Within the SEBoK we define an engineered system encompassing combinations of technology and people in the context of natural, social, business, public or political environments; created, used and sustained for an identified purpose. The application of the Systems Approach Applied to Engineered Systems requires the ability to position problems or opportunities in the wider system containing them, to create or change a specific engineered system of interest (soi) and to understand and deal with 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.

The discussions of engineered-system contexts includes the general idea of Groups of Systems to help deal with situations in which the elements of an engineered system are themselves independent engineered systems. To help provide a focus for the discussions of how SE is applied to real world problems, four engineered-system contexts are introduced in the KA:

• product system Context
• service system Context
• enterprise system Context
• system of systems (sos) Capability Context

The details of how SE is applied to each of these contexts is described in SEBoK Part 4 Applications of Systems Engineering.

References

Works Cited

Insert works cited in article in alphabetical order by author's last name.

Primary References

Bertalanffy, L., von. 1968. General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications, rev. ed. New York, NY, USA: Braziller.

Magee, C. L., O.L. de Weck. 2004. "Complex System Classification." Proceedings of the 14th Annual International Council on Systems Engineering International Symposium, 20-24 June 2004, Toulouse, France.

Rebovich, G., and B.E. White (eds.). 2011. Enterprise Systems Engineering: Advances in the Theory and Practice. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press.

Sheard, S.A. and A. Mostashari. 2009. "Principles of Complex Systems for Systems Engineering". Systems Engineering, 12(4): 295-311.

Tien, J.M. and D. Berg. 2003. "A Case for Service Systems Engineering". Journal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering. 12(1): 13-38.

Additional References

Insert additional references for article in alphabetical order by author's last name.

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SEBoK v. 1.9.1 released 30 September 2018

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