AbstractIntroductionHistorical Basis for Modern System EngineeringThe System EngineerThe System Engineering MethodologyThe Future of the FieldReferencesESD.83 - Overview of Systems Engineering 01/14/19An Overview of Systems Engineering-The Art of Managing Complexity-Submitted on October 16th, 2001, for ESD.83Cory R.A. HallamAbstractSystems Engineering has emerged as a distinct professional discipline in the past half century in response to the ever-increasing complexity of new products and systems. This paper provides a brief overview of the discipline and the role of the Systems Engineer.IntroductionThe term Systems Engineering (SE) is a generic term that describes the application ofstructured engineering methodologies to the design and creation of complex systems.While there has been great discussion about the term "system", it can be argued that fromthe point of view of the System Engineer, a system is a collection or set of "parts" thatwork together to perform a particular function. These parts can be in the form ofhardware, software, or liveware, and in themselves may be considered systems. Thesystem definition is essentially relative to the perspective of the individual who views thesystem. The discipline of Systems Engineering focuses on the coordination of all of thedisciplines, tasks, and activities necessary to develop the total system. Unlike traditional engineering disciplines, such as hydraulics engineering, structuralengineering, or electrical engineering, Systems Engineering is not governed by a set offundamental mathematical relations based on physical properties. In essence, it has nottraditionally been a strict laboratory-based form of engineering. It has emerged from aneed to deal with the ever-increasing complexity of system development projects, andemerged as a collection of best-practices for managing the development of complexengineering systems. Given the ad-hoc assemblage of many of these best-practices inCory R. A. Hallam Page 1ESD.83 - Overview of Systems Engineering 01/14/19their early years, the past several decades has seen the application of modeling andsimulation tools to the development of processes that optimize system development inmultivariate system requirements space - a process that historically was an emergentproperty of multiple iterations in managing, designing, and creating complex systems.The current state of affairs in System Engineering seems to support the notion thatSystems Engineering ultimately attempts to formalize the process of tracing andmanaging customer requirements from conceptual design through to system developmentand operation. Historical Basis for Modern System EngineeringThe field of System Engineering as we know it emerged from the post World War II (WWII) military-industrial-academic complex that was embroiled in an accelerating weapons race with the former Soviet Union. While many pre-WWII systems were designed, built and implemented in a succession of steps with relatively few decision makers affecting the technical design and development of the system, post WWII militaryprojects were inherently more complex involving exponentially increasing numbers of disciplinary experts and increasing layers of interacting systems of systems. The foundation of System Engineering, as it is known today, emerged from this era via the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Program.Prior to the Atlas ICBM program, the U.S. Air Force (Army Air Corp in earlier years) dealt with prime airframe contractors who were responsible for designing an aircraft to military specifications and managing all of the subcontractors necessary for delivering onthe contract. This led to an environment of airframe-centric military platforms that senior Air Force officials became accustomed to purchasing and managing on a 1-to-1 basis with the prime. Ultimately, this resulted in a limited number of military weapons system options, as the decision of using an airframe platform was essentially never questioned. When the time came for the development of an ICBM in the early 1950's, the Air Force was again poised to choose an airframe manufacturer and pursue a prime contractor relation.Cory R. A. Hallam Page 2ESD.83 - Overview of Systems Engineering 01/14/19The U.S. Air Force Assistant Secretary for Research and Development (R&D), Trevor Gardner, was tasked with heading the USAF Strategic Missile Evaluation Committee, later called the Teapot Committee. This committee had the task of evaluating the numerous strategic missile development efforts in the U.S., primarily as a means to eliminate repetition of development efforts in the country. However, with a group of very scientifically oriented academics on the committee, many from Caltech, it quickly began assessing the capability of airframe prime contractors to develop a system that would require significant electronic and computational capabilities. The ICBM would indeed be a complex system, the likes of which had never been developed. It was the recommendation of the Teapot committee in 1954 to a young General with the Western Development Division of the Air Force Research and Development Command, Bernard Schriever, that ultimately changed the organizing principles of managing system development contracts - there would be a System Engineering contractor staffed by "unusually competent" scientists and engineers to direct the technical and management control over all elements of the program.With a group of intellectually gifted scientists and engineers, the company of Ramo-Wooldridge, a company with prior experience in electronics systems, was contracted to lead the system engineering of the Atlas program in conjunction with Shriever. Noteworthy is the fact that Simon Ramo, a Ph.D. from Clatech and co-founder of Ramo-Woooldridge, often served as the chair of the Teapot Committee. At the height of the Atlas program, there were over 18 000 scientists, engineers and technicians, and a total of70 000 people from 22 industries involved in the program, which included 17 contractors,200 subcontractors, and over 500 hundred military officers. Ramo and his staff helped establish System Engineering as a discipline by creating an organization dedicated to the scheduling and coordinating of activities for