System Architecture: Strategy and Product Development for Complex Systems, First Edition

5.3 Analysis of External Function and Value

Primary Externally Delivered Function

We now turn our attention to Question 5a in Table 5.1: “What is the primary externally delivered value-related function?” We can parse this statement into two parts. First, the function must be ­externally delivered; it must cross the boundary of the system and influence something in the context. Second, there is a primary function—the function for which the system was built. The primary externally delivered functions for several example systems are given in Table 5.2.

Table 5.2 | Primary value-related externally delivered functions of a system: Function (operand with state and process of transformation) and the associated form

Function			Form
Value-related ...