Chapter 2 - Systems Engineering Overview
Product Baseline
"....The approved, combined performance/design documentation utilized for the production/procurement of the CI..."
Family of Systems
"....a set or arrangement of systems that can be arranged or interconnected in various ways to provide different capabilities. The mix of systems can be tailored to provide desired capabilities dependent on the situation...."
Configuration Item (CI)
"....an aggregation of hardware or software that satisfies an end use and is designated for separate configuration management. (Requires a specification, formal qualification test and configuration audits).
Specification
"...a document prepared to support acquisition that describes essential technical requirements for material and the criteria for determining whether those requirements are met...."
Physical Configuration Audit (PCA)
"...a formal program audit / milestone to verify that all information necessary to define the system are available....and to demonstrate that all required supporting equipment / certifications / trained personnel / qualified suppliers / production tooling & processes / et al are in place to support production...."
Functional Configuration Audit (FCA)
"...a formal program audit / milestone to verify that all system requirements have been satisfied..."
Baseline
"...a guide serving as a standard for comparison or control..."
System of Systems
"...a set or arrangement of systems that are related or connected to provide a given capability. The loss of any part of the system will degrade the performance or capabilities of the whole..."
Verification Cross Reference Index (VCRI)
"...a summary of the verification methods utilized to ensure system verification....examples include: inspection, analysis, testing,...."
Part Number
"...an identification communicating that the item will provide the key characteristics of form, fit, and function. This is applicable to a component, a sub-assembly, end item, et al "
Allocated Baseline
"...the approved documentation describing a CI's functional, performance, interoperability and interface requirements that are allocate from those of a system or higher level CI, interface requirements with interfacing CIs, and additional design constraints...key component is the Component CI Specifications..."
Functional Baseline
"...the approved documentation describing a system's functional, performance, interoperability, and interface requirements.....key product is the System Specification(s)..."
Validation
"...the process for ensuring that the correct requirements have been defined...."
Verification
"...the process for ensuring that the system satisfies the requirements..."
a system may be part of one or several wider
"containing systems"
A system has system-level properties that are properties of the whole system not attributable to individual parts. Which "properties" is this an example of?
"emergent properties"
When applying a short-term fix, rather than take the time to develop a long-term solution, there is often a trade-off between the two. Such that the initial success of the quick fix reduces the chances the real solution will be developed. What is this an example of?
"shifting the burden"
In regards to systems engineering professional development __% of development is achieved through experience, __% through mentoring, and __% through training.
) 70,20,10
According to a study Eric Honour and the UNiversity of South Australia the optimum level of SE effort for a normalized program is __% of program cost
14
Research results by Eric Honour and the University of South Australia (Honour, 2013) concluded that the optimum level of SE effort for a normalized program is ____ of the total program cost.
14%
According to a study by the National Defense Industrial Association, IEE, and the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon evaluating project implementing systems engineering capabilities (SEC)
15% of Groups with lower SEC high High Performance vs. 57% of groups with Higher SEC had High performance
Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) certificate requires a minimum of __ years of experience
5
A possible heuristic for each level in the [system] hierarcy is to have no more than _______ elements subordinate to it.
7 ± 2
Based on the report from the Defense Acquisition University (DAU, 1993), the concept stage of a new system averages ____ of the total LCC (life cycle cost).
8%
system has
A life cycle, function, structure, behavior, and performance characteristics
Which of the following is considered a key difference between leaders and managers defined by J.P. Kotter (2001)? Please select the best answer.
A) Coping with change versus coping with complexity. B) Setting a direction versus planning and budgeting. C) Aligning people versus organizing and staffing. D) Motivating people versus controlling and problem solving.
What is a considered a property of a system thinker? Please select the best answer.
A) Seeks to understand the big picture. B) Considers both short- and long-term consequences of actions. C) Finds where unintended consequences emerge.
Peter Checkland (1975) observed that the use of classical engineering approaches to complex problems falls down since there many soft factors that affect systems. Which of the options below is considered a soft factor?
A) attitudes B) practice C) procedures
Which of the following are classes of the SE competency framework
A) holistic lifecycle view B) systems thinking C) SE management
what are properties of a system thinker
A) seeks to understand big picture B) observes how elements within the system change over time, generating patterns and trends C) uses understanding of system structure to identify possible leverage actions
Aspects of leadership that are particularly relevant for the systems engineers include all except the following
B) Seeing the big picture C) Thinking strategically and looking at the long-term implications of decisions and actions to set vision and course D) Turning ambiguous problem statements into clear, precise solution challenges for the team
What is an emergent behavior?
Behavior of the system that cannot be understood exclusively in terms of the behavior of the individual system elements
Jay Forrester of MIT developed what simulation language
DYNAMO
SEBoK covers
Guide to the systems engineering body of knowledge
INCOSE - System Definition
INCOSE - "...an integrated set of elements, subsystems, or assemblies that accomplish a defined objective. These elements include: products (hardware, software, firmware), processes, people, information, techniques, facilities, services, and other support elements...."
Which international standard was introduced in 2002 allowed SE to be recognized as a preferred mechanism to establish agreement for the creation of products and services to be traded between two or more organizations - the supplier(s) and the acquirers(s).
ISO/IEC 15288
The concept most familiar to systems engineers in which a system is regarded as a "whole" consisting of interacting parts can be traced back to
Ludwig Von Bertalanffy
Which of the following is NOT a INCOSE certification level that is currently available?
PSEP
SEBoK
Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge
Which of these is NOT a representation/characteristic of the Systems Engineering approach:
Systems Engineering is NOT the representation an isolated disciplinary approach with a non-iterative process that concentrates only on specific task within the process.
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15289 covers
Systems and software engineering -- Content of systems and software engineering life cycle process information products (documentation)
ISO/IEC/IEEE 152888 covers the following
Systems and software engineering -- System life cycle process
Systems science is similar to what other approach? Select the best answer.
Systems thinking
What is the difference between a black box/white box system representation
The "Black Box" is based on an external view (attributes). The "White Box" is based on and internal view of the system (attributes and structure of the elements
operating environment
The collection of elements that specifically do not belong to the system but must interact with the system which may include users (or operators) of the system are referred to as:
A 2012 study by the National Defense Industrial Association, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon surveyed 148 development projects and found clear and significant relationships between the application of SE activities and the performance of those projects. What was the relationship?
The higher levels of SE expertise and capability produced higher levels of of project performance.
Enabling System
They are the systems that facilitate the life cycle activities of the SOI. The enabling systems provide services that are needed by the SOI during one or more life cycle stages, although the enabling systems are not a direct element of the operational environment.
System Definition
a "whole" consisting of interacting "parts."
"system of systems
a SOI whose elements are managerially and/or operationally independent systems.
systems science can serve as the foundation for
a metadiscipline that unifies the traditional scientific specializations
an "atomic" system element
a system element than can not be further decomposed
Attribute (of a System)
an observable characteristic or property of the system (or system elements) ex: attribute of aircraft is air speed
"attribute" of a system (or system element
an observable characteristic or property of the system.
A system element that needs only a black box representation (external view) to capture its requirements and confidently specify its real world solution definition can be regarded as
atomic.
Soft factors that must be considered in a system include
attitudes, practices, and procedures
The INCOSE SE competency framework has four skill levels
awareness, supervised practitioner, practitioner, and expert
which are important for systems engineers and their teams
both leaders and managers are needed at different times in the development process
System Engineering includes
both technical and management processes, and both processes depend upon good decision making.
best way to understand a complicated system
break it down into parts recursively until the parts are so simple that we understand them and to then reassemble the parts to understand the whole
According to J.P. Kotter which is not a key difference between leaders and managers?
charisma versus delegator
Examples of enabling systems
collaboration development systems and production systems.
During the life cycle stages for an SOI it is necessary to
concurrently consider the relevant enabling systems and the SOI.
The SE process has an iterative methodology that supports
discovery, learning, and continuous improvement
Early pioneers of SE and software engineering such as Yourdon and Wymore, long sought to bring discipline and precision to the understanding and management of the dynamic behavior of a system by seeking relations between the ______ and _______ representations of the system.
external, internal
The _________ of a system is typically expressed in terms of the interactions of the system with its operating environment, especially the users.
functionality
Complexity has an ever increasing
impact on innovation.
Emergent properties depend on the structure of the whole system and on
its interactions with the environment
Research in systems science attempts to compensate for the inherent limitations of classical science, most notably the
lack of ways to deal with emergence
The "System Boundary" of a system is
line of demarcation" between the system itself and its greater context
Peter Senge developed the _____________ language as a means of graphically representing system dynamics
link, loop, and delay
measurement
outcome of a process in which the SOI interacts with an observation system under specified conditions.
Systems Engineering is a
perspective, a process and a profession.
SE extends the effort performed in concept exploration to
reduce the risk of hasty commitments without adequate study.
As complexity and change continue to escalate in products, services and society
reducing the risk associated with new systems or modifications to complex systems continues to be a primary goal of the systems engineer.
A system concept should be regarded as a
shared "mental representation" of the actual system
As stated in the INCOSE Code of Ethics "the practice of Systems Engineering can result in significant _________ and _________ benefits, but only if unintended and undesired effects are considered and mitigated."
social, environmental
Systems science is both the "science of systems" and "_______," covering theories and methods that contrast with those of other sciences, which are generally reductionist in nature.
systems approach to science
Enabling systems
systems that facilitate the life cycle activities of the SOI.
The functionality of a system is typically expressed in terms of
the interaction of the system with its operating environment, especially the users.
In "complicated" systems
the interactions between the many parts are governed by fixed relationships.
In systems science a reductionist approach
when appropriate, is successful in using the methods of separating and isolating in the search of simplicity
