Systems engineering: coping with complexity

TLDR

In an era of shrinking development cycles, delivering complex products on time is increasingly difficult, and systems engineering—supported by decades of industrial experience—is essential for both industry teams and academic curricula. The book presents systems design principles in an accessible format. It explains requirements, architecture, integration, and verification through a linear lifecycle, then expands to multi‑level and iterative complexities and discusses organisational impacts.

Abstract

In an age of shrinking development cycles, it is harder than ever to bring the right product to market at the right time. Good product, especially complex products, is underpinned by good systems, and systems engineering itself is recognised as the key tool to product development. This book covers the principles of systems design in an easy to read format. The authors have decades of practical industrial experience, and the material is ideal for industrial project teams. For academic courses, the book acts as a component for graduate and undergraduate engineering studies, particularly those on systems engineering. It covers how to handle requirements, architectural design, integration and verification, starting from the perspective of a simple linear lifecycle. The book then gradually introduces recent work on the complexity of real world systems, with issues such as multi-level systems, and iterative development. There is also coverage of the impact of systems engineering at the organsational level.