System Engineering

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 System Engineering
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 Software engineering occurs as a consequence of a process called System
Engineering
 System engineering may take on two different forms depending on the
application domain
 Business process engineering – conducted when the context of the work focuses on a
business enterprise
 Product engineering – conducted when the context of the work focuses on a product
that is to be built
 Both forms bring order to the development of computer-based systems
 Both forms work to allocate a role for computer software and to establish the links that tie
software to other elements of a computer-based system
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Computer-based Systems
 A set of elements that are organized to accomplish some predefined goal by
processing information.
 Goal:
 To support some business function or
 To develop a product that can be sold to generate business revenue

 To accomplish the goal, a computer-based system makes use of a variety of

system elements:

Software Database
Hardware Documentation
People Procedures
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Computer-based Systems…
 The role of the system engineer is to define the elements of a specific computer-
based system in the context of the overall hierarchy of systems
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System engineering hierarchy
 The system engineering Hierarchy/process begins with a world view;
 the business or product domain is examined to ensure that the proper business or
technology context can be established
 The world view is refined to focus on a specific domain of interest
 Within a specific domain, the need for targeted system elements is analyzed

 Finally, the analysis, design, and construction of a targeted system element are
initiated
 At the world view level, a very broad context is established
 At the bottom level, detailed technical activities are conducted by the relevant
engineering discipline (e.g., software engineering)
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System engineering hierarchy
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System engineering hierarchy
 The world view (WV) is composed of a set of domains (Di), which can each be a system
or system of systems in its own right.
WV = {D1, D2, D3, . . . , Dn}
 Each domain is composed of specific elements (Ej) each of which serves some role in
accomplishing the objective and goals of the domain or component:
Di = {E1, E2, E3, . . . , Em}
 Finally, each element is implemented by specifying the technical components (Ck) that
achieve the necessary function for an element:
Ej = {C1, C2, C3, . . . , Ck}
 Note that the system engineer narrows the focus of work as he or she moves downward in
the hierarchy just described.
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System engineering hierarchy…
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System engineering hierarchy…
 The world view is composed of a set of domains
 Each domain is composed of specific elements each of which serves some role in
accomplishing the objective and goals of the domain
 Finally, each element is implemented by specifying the technical components that
achieve the necessary function for an element:
 Note that the system engineer narrows the focus of work as he or she moves
downward in the hierarchy just described.
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System Modeling
 System engineering is a modeling process. Whether the focus is on the world
view or the detailed view, the engineer creates models that
 Define the processes that serve the needs of the view under consideration.
 Represent the behavior of the processes and the assumptions on which the behavior is
based.
 Explicitly define both exogenous and endogenous input to the model.
 Represent all linkages (including output) that will enable the engineer to better
understand the view.
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System Modeling…
 Factors to Consider when Constructing a Model
 Assumptions
 These reduce the number of possible variations, thus enabling a model to reflect the
problem in a reasonable manner
 Simplifications
 These enable the model to be created in a timely manner
 Limitations
 These help to bound the maximum and minimum values of the system
 Constraints
 These guide the manner in which the model is created and the approach taken when the
model is implemented
 Preferences
 These indicate the preferred solution for all data, functions, and behavior
 They are driven by customer requirements
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Business process Engineering
 The goal
 is to define architectures that will enable a business to use information effectively.
 Is an approach for creating an overall plan for implementing the computing and software
architecture.

 Three different architectures must be analyzed and designed within the context of
business objectives and goals:
 Data Architecture
 provides a framework for the information needs of a business
 building blocks of the architecture are the data objects which contain a set of attributes that
define some aspect, quality, characteristic, or descriptor of the data that are being described.
 Applications Architecture
 encompasses those elements of a system that transform objects within the data
architecture for some business purpose
 system of programs (software) that performs this transformation
 Technology Infrastructure –infrastructures that supports the above two
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Business process Engineering…
 To model the system architectures, a hierarchy of business process
engineering activities is defined
 the world view is achieved through information strategy planning (ISP)
 ISP views the entire business as an entity and isolates the domains of the
business (e.g., engineering, manufacturing, marketing, finance, sales) that
are important to the overall enterprise.
 ISP defines the data objects that are visible at the enterprise level, their
relationships, and how they flow between the business domains.
 The domain view is addressed with a BPE activity called business area
analysis (BAA).
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Business process Engineering…
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Business process Engineering…
 Business Area Analysis
 is concerned with identifying in detail and function requirements of selected business
areas identified during ISP and ascertaining their interactions.
 It is only concerned with specifying what is required in a business area.
 As the system engineer begins BAA, the focus narrows to a specific business
domain.
 The outcome of BAA is to isolate areas of opportunity in which information
systems may support the business area
 Once an information system has been isolated for further development, BPE makes
a transition into software engineering
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Business process Engineering…
 By invoking a business system design (BSD) step, the basic requirements of a
specific information system are modeled and these requirements are translated into
 data architecture,
 applications architecture,
 and technology infrastructure.
 The final BPE step—construction and integration focuses on implementation detail.
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Product Engineering
 Goal:
 to translate the customer’s desire for a set of defined capabilities into a working product.
 To Achieve this Goal it must drive:
 Architecture
 The architecture encompasses four distinct system components: software, hardware, data (and
databases), and people.

 Infrastructure
 A support infrastructure is established and includes the technology required to tie the
components together and the information (e.g., documents, CD-ROM, video) that is used to
support the components.
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Product Engineering…