System Architecture: Strategy and Product Development for Complex Systems, First Edition
by Daniel Selva, Bruce Cameron, Edward Crawley
5.7 Summary
Like form, function is a system attribute conceived by the architect. It is the actions, activities, operations, and transformations that cause or contribute to performance. Function is made up of a process, which is pure activity, acting on an operand, which is an object changed by the process.
Built systems have a value-related operand, whose change is associated with the delivery of benefit and eventually value. The value of a system occurs when the externally delivered function acts on an external operand across the system boundary.
Externally delivered value-related function and other, secondary value-related functions emerge from the internal functional architecture, which usually features a value-related pathway. A complete ...
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