SYS 501: Concepts of Systems

Engineering Course Syllabus

Instructor: Professor Thomas F. Gannon Email: tgannon@wpi.edu

Location: Asynchronously Online Term: Spring 2020
Course Description
Systems Engineering is a multifaceted discipline, involving human, organizational, and
various technical variables that work together to create complex systems. This course is
an introduction and overview of the methods and techniques that systems engineers
use to define, develop, and deploy systems. It includes specific integrated examples,
projects and team building exercises to aid in understanding and appreciating
fundamental principles. Topics covered include Introduction and SE Overview, Complex
Systems and Systems Development, Stakeholder Needs Analysis and Requirements,
Risk Management, Functional Analysis, Concept Exploration, Concept Definition,
Tradeoff Analysis, Architecture, Advanced Development, Engineering Design,
Integration, Verification and Validation, Production, Operations and Support, SE
Management, Quality, Software Systems Engineering and Modeling and Simulation.
Course Learning Outcomes
After taking this course, the student will be able to:
1. Overview: Understand the fundamental principles of systems engineering
2. Process: Apply the technical processes in systems engineering from mission
analysis to disposal
3. Business: Relate technical management processes to case studies
4. Organization: Understand how organizational and acquisition activities support
the system design
5. Application: Understand how to tailor for different system domains
6. Methods: Apply systems engineering methods and techniques across a system
life cycle
7. Specialty: Relate specialty engineering activities to the system design process

Course Approach
This course is divided into nine modules that are completed over the same number of
weeks; each week starts on Thursday. There are no required class meeting times for
the course; however, teams will need to ‘meet’ periodically to collaborate using a
dedicated online team discussion group, Zoom and other methods agreed to by all team
members. All course content will be available on the Canvas website.
To convey course content the instructor:
 Provides a set of lectures each week with multiple lectures covering the content;
 Posts supplemental material when appropriate;
 Assigns weekly reading and open book online quizzes;
 Assigns individual and/or team projects;
 Facilitates weekly graded online discussions; and
 Provides timely feedback on questions and assignments.

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 SYS 501: Concepts of Systems
Engineering Course Syllabus
Students are required to perform the following by the assigned due date and time:
 Review the lectures;
 Complete weekly reading assignments and review course content;
 Meet with team members to discuss content and work on team work as needed;
 Perform individual (no collaboration) work as required including completing weekly
timed open book online quizzes covering the content and readings for that week;
 Participate in weekly online discussions by responding to a question posted by the
instructor and replying to another student’s response;
 Complete individual and/or team assignments;
 Demonstrate mastery of the course by completing a final project.
Required Textbook and Other Resources
 Systems Engineering Handbook: A Guide for System Life Cycle Processes and
Activities, INCOSE-TP-2003-002-04, (4th ed), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ,
ISBN: 9781118999400. The electronic version of this book is available to you for
free from the INCOSE Store once you set up an INCOSE associate member
account. Instructions are available in the Canvas Files area.
 Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge wiki at http://www.sebokwiki.org.
 Student Guide to Academic Integrity at WPI. Downloadable from
https://www.wpi.edu/about/policies/academic-integrity
 Guidance for avoiding plagiarism, see: http://libguides.wpi.edu/basictutorials
 Additional reading and resource materials are available in the Files area on the
Canvas course website.
Week and Course Duration
The week starts on Thursday and ends the following Wednesday. Assignments are due
Wednesday at 11:59pm Worcester time (East Coast Time).
Communication Methods
We will primarily use Course Tools in the Canvas system such as Discussions and
Team Groups within the course website to communicate. Students must log into the
course site on Canvas to use these methods. We may also use student provided
external emails as a backup method; however, students should check or forward their
WPI email account to their preferred email account because correspondence forwarded
by the Canvas system is automatically routed to WPI email only.
Here are the ways to contact me:
 Email – You can expect a response within 24 to 48 hours.
 Question and Answer Forum – Please post general questions to the Question
and Answer Forum pinned on the Discussion tab. That is where I will respond to
questions about the course material, lectures, assignments, and expectations.
There are no set office hours. I am open to scheduling a virtual live meeting if
requested.

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 SYS 501: Concepts of Systems
Engineering Course Syllabus

Tips for Success in the Course

The most important step for being successful in this challenging graduate course is to
devote an average of 10-15 hours per week for class work. Some students may need
more time to work, others may need less. Part of the time is needed for ‘in class’ work
such as reviewing course materials and team discussions. The rest of the time is for
completing the assigned reading, completing team or individual assignments and taking
quizzes. Over the 10 weeks you will need to devote 100-150 hours to be successful.
Other tips include logging into the course Canvas site nearly every day even for a quick
check; contributing your ideas and perspectives to the discussions and reading or
listening to other students’ ideas and perspectives – that is, learning from each other,
not just the instructor and building a support structure of folks who will help you achieve
your professional development goals, even after the class is over.
Weekly Online Discussions
Students participate in weekly online discussions to interactively discuss course content
to achieve the learning objectives. Students can participate day or night, and
participants have time to reflect on their response and create succinct easy to read
replies (quality is preferred over quantity). Earning full participation credit for each week
requires a substantive response to the weekly discussion question and two substantive
replies to postings by other students each week.
Weekly Open Book Online Quizzes
Students will complete a weekly open-book online quiz that covers course content in
that week. Please do the assigned readings, review the lectures, and complete other
assigned work as applicable, before you take the quiz each week.
Individual and Team Assignments
Individual and team assignments successively build capability and confidence in
learning and applying the course material. Students will submit individual assignments
and contribute to team assignments. Instructor feedback and grades are posted by
midnight up to one week later.
Team assignments require each student to form a team with 3 - 5 other persons to
complete team assignments. Effective time management is crucial to ensure that teams
complete their assignments on time and to keep the course on schedule for all
participants. The members of the team should collaborate to decide on team leader
assignments for the course for each team on a rotating basis. Assignments are
submitted by clicking on the Assignment title and proceeding through the submission
process.
Team Member Assessments
To promote full team member participation, students assess the contribution of
members of the team at the end of the class. While team members usually receive the
same grade; team members may earn a lower grade at the instructor’s discretion due to
a lower contribution to the team work.

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 SYS 501: Concepts of Systems
Engineering Course Syllabus
Academic Honesty
Please become familiar with the Student Guide to Academic Integrity at WPI that is
downloadable from https://www.wpi.edu/about/policies/academic-integrity. Issues
involve copying and pasting text directly from a source without putting text in quotes and
giving credit to the source; collaborating on individual work (in this course collaboration
should only be for team assignments); rephrasing another person’s work without citing
that work; or turning in work where a good portion of the work is someone else’s work
even when properly cited. Consequences for violating the Academic Honesty Policy
include earning a zero on the assignment, failing the course, or being suspended or
expelled from WPI.
Library Access
Students can search for a database, ejournal, ebook or other library resource at
https://www.wpi.edu/library. Once you have searched for and found the resource, the
site will ask you to log in with your assigned WPI username and password to retrieve
the resource. Additional library ‘how to’s’ are provided from the course links.
American Disability Act (ADA) Accommodations
Students who need special accommodations to participate in class should contact the
instructor as well as the WPI Student Disabilities Services Office as soon as possible
(see http://www.wpi.edu/offices/disabilities/).

Assignments
Specific details on the assignments are found in the course Assignments (on the
Canvas site). Grading distribution is as shown:

1. Weekly discussion board (individual) 10%

2. Knowledge check quizzes (individual) 15%
3. Homework and exercises (individual) 10%
4. Individual project (individual) 30%
5. Team assignments (team) 30%
6. Contribution to team project (individual by team members) 5%
TOTAL 100%
All assignments are in Canvas and organized based on the tab selected:
 Module tab: assignments are organized in preferred order of completion
 Assignments tab: assignments are organized based on “show by” selection at
top:
o Date: ordered by due date
o Type: ordered within percentage of grade groups
 Syllabus tab: assignments are organized by due dates
Rubrics for each assignment will be used to determine the grade for the completed
work.

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 SYS 501: Concepts of Systems
Engineering Course Syllabus
Grading Policy
Final course grades are based on the student’s performance as follows:
A Excellent: earned 90 – 100 points
B Good: earned 80 – 89 points
C Pass: earned 70 – 79 points
D Unacceptable for graduate work: earned 60 – 69 points
F Fail: earned 59 points or below
No credit will be earned on late work unless the student has arranged an extension
ahead of time with the instructor (who is very flexible with everyone’s challenging
circumstances and time constraints); with rare exceptions based on individual
circumstances (inability to communicate with the instructor ahead of time based on an
emergency, for example).
Course incompletes may be granted if the major part of the course is completed. In
addition, in the case of an incomplete, the student is responsible for handing in the final
work within the WPI required timeframe (currently one year); after this time an
incomplete grade changes to a Failing (F) grade (this is WPI policy). The best situation
is to complete the course on time. Students who finish with an incomplete rarely come
back and finish the course.
Assessment and Feedback Plan
Knowledge check quizzes and exercises using the Canvas quiz tool provide immediate
feedback. All assignments will be graded within a week.

Late Work Policy

Knowledge check quizzes and discussion boards will close at the deadline and no late
work is accepted. Individual homework assignments and team submissions will be
closed at the deadline unless an extension has been discussed with the instructor in
advance of the deadline and authorized by the instructor in the form of a revised
deadline in Canvas.

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 SYS 501: Concepts of Systems
Engineering Course Syllabus
Wee Topics Readings Assignments
k
1 Introduction and SE SE Handbook Chapter 2 Orientation Quiz
Overview INCOSE SoS Primer Introduction Post
Discussion: Definition & Concepts
SoS Exercise
Quiz: Systems Science & Systems Thinking
2 Lifecycle Stages SE Handbook Chapters Discussion: Applying SE
and Tailoring 3, 8 Quiz: Tailoring

3 Technical SE Handbook Sections Discussion: Stakeholder Needs

Processes Part 1 4.1-4.3 Quiz: Requirements Definition
(Mission Analysis INCOSE Guide to Writing Team: Oresund Case Study (Life Cycle)
through Requirements
Requirements) INCOSE Technical
Measurement Guide
4 Technical SE Handbook Sections Discussion: Systems Analysis
Processes Part 2 4.4-4.6 Quiz: Design Definition
(Architecture, Individual Part 1: Needs Analysis
Design, and
Systems Analysis)
5 Technical SE Handbook Sections Discussion: Transition
Processes Part 3 4.7-4.13 Quiz: Implementation & Integration
(Implementation
through Disposal)
6 Technical SE Handbook Chapter 5 Discussion: SE Impact on Business
Management INCOSE Measurement Quiz: Technical to Business
Processes Primer Individual Part 2: Design & Deployment
MSTI Case Study
7 Acquisition and SE Handbook Chapters Discussion: Acquisition & Supply
Supply, 6,7 Quiz: Organizational Activities
Organizational Team: MSTI Case Study (Risk)
Project-Enabling
Processes
8 Specialty SE Handbook Chapter Discussion: Specialty Engineering
Engineering 10 Specialty Engineering Exercise
Activities Quiz: Specialty Engineering Activities
Individual Part 3: SE Plan
9 SE Methods SE Handbook Chapter 9 Discussion: SE Methods
Quiz: SE Methods
Team: What is SE Presentation
Assessment of Team Members
10 Final Presentation   Final Presentation

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