INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, 5th Edition

1 SYSTEMS ENGINEERING INTRODUCTION

1.1 WHAT IS SYSTEMS ENGINEERING?

Systems Engineering (SE)

Our world and the systems we engineer continue to become more complex and interrelated. SE is an integrative approach to help teams collaborate to understand and manage systems and their complexity and deliver successful systems. The SE perspective is based on systems thinking—a perspective that sharpens our awareness of wholes and how the parts within those wholes interrelate (incose.org, About Systems Engineering). SE aims to ensure the pieces work together to achieve the objectives of the whole. SE practitioners work within a project team and take a holistic, balanced, life cycle approach to support the successful completion of system projects (INCOSE Vision 2035, 2022). SE has the responsibility to realize systems that are fit for purpose, namely that systems accomplish their intended purposes and be resilient to effects in real-world operation, while minimizing unintended actions, side effects, and consequences (Griffin, 2010).

Definition of SE

INCOSE Definitions (2019) and ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 (2023) define:

Systems Engineering is a transdisciplinary and integrative approach to enable the successful realization, use, and retirement of engineered systems, using systems principles and concepts, and scientific, technological, and management methods.

INCOSE Definitions (2019) elaborates:

SE focuses on:

• establishing, balancing and integrating stakeholders’ goals, purpose and success ...