What is systems Engineering and is it important?
Systems Engineering brings a multi-disciplinary approach to address the complexity of systems, their inter-dependencies with internal and external systems/services, and system thinking to understand how the parts interact together to be in unison to deliver an interoperable set of capabilities for the customer. There need to be experts in specific disciplines, technology areas, and software, but the systems engineer working closely with all of these team members coordinates and conducts the engineering, design, development, integration, testing, deployment, and support so that everything fits together like a 1000 piece puzzle into the final picture.
The action of working artfully to bring something about
INCOSE definition of Engineering
Systems engineering is a challenging field that requires continuous adjustments and balancing of the delivery of each piece of the picture while synchronizing the phasing of all of the pieces required to bring clarity to the capabilities that need to be delivered. Are you confused yet, you shouldn’t be. Let’s take the INCOSE definition of engineering and break it down into an analogy of an orchestra. View the systems engineer as the conductor for a large orchestra, that has to play in harmony and in sync while adjusting some of the sectional music due to changes in the overall composition of the final musical score. When executed properly, the systems engineer really does make complex systems play magical music at a concert that is enjoyed by the audience.
Here are some worthwhile pages on systems engineering:
