The Art and Science of Systems Engineering

My understanding of and passion for Systems Engineering has grown profoundly throughout my decades long career in aerospace. Engineering is a career, a degree and the thing you tell people you do for a living. However, it also is a way of thinking about the way things work and how to make things work better.

A system is a combination of things, components if you will, that operate together to accomplish a goal or are connected in specific ways such that their individual operation is influenced by the other components within the system. Analyzing and understanding these connections among things in a system and determining optimum ways of achieving the desired goals is the work of Systems Engineering.

Systems Engineering is a beautiful combination of physics, controls, structures, electronics, software, kinematics, thermodynamics and so many other individual disciplines of the field of engineering. From the simplest of mechanical systems like a jigsaw puzzle or a mechanical pencil to the highly integrated, complex systems of a commercial jetliner like the Boeing 787 or the Airbus A380, Systems Engineering and Systems thinking makes possible the inter-connected world in which we live.

Engineering is and must be organized into a very specialized and compartmentalized set of fields like mechanical design, structural analysis, electrical design, controls design, software design, dynamic analysis, verification test and many others to ensure that we have capable experts in each area, but Systems thinkers are needed to coordinate and assemble these individual activities into a complete operational system to meet the needs of the customer.

The methods of Systems Engineering apply well to all types of systems; complex electro-mechanical systems, environmental systems, organizational systems, hydro-mechanical systems, digital systems as well as communication systems. Systems thinking results in a deep, overarching understanding of how individual parts work separately and together to perform a desired outcome. Systems Engineering is the technical glue that holds components together in such a smart way as to achieve a far greater purpose than what each individual part was designed to do. That is the art and science behind Systems Engineering.