Technical Documentation and Process

5

Systems Engineering*

5.1 Introduction

Modern systems engineering emerged during World War II as weapons evolved into weapon systems—due to the degree of complexity in design, development, and deployment. The complexities of the space program in the 1960s made a systems engineering approach to design and problem-solving even more critical. Indeed, the Department of Defense and NASA are two of the staunchest practitioners of systems engineering. With the growth of digital systems, the need for systems engineering gained even more attention as new technologies were introduced at a rapid rate.

Today, most large engineering organizations utilize a systems engineering process. Much has been published about system engineering practices in the ...