A Conversation on System Level Attributes

Systems engineering is the first area targeted to improve development, design, and support of Department of Defense (DOD) weapon systems. This recognizes the breadth of influence that system level attributes have on the ultimate effectiveness and suitability of the completed weapon system. However, the current definition and understanding of systems engineering leads to a broad use of the term covering all aspects of engineering. This results in a confused point of reference that appears to have originated in the mind of M.C Escher. The constant decomposition of Systemsof- Systems (SoS) into subsystems that become systems for further decomposition. This results in lower level design standards being addressed through "systems engineering." Additionally, all design problems are now dealt with by "improved systems engineering." Individual engineering disciplines require detailed understanding which is narrowly focused to optimize the subsystem performance. As subsystems interact, interface control documents (ICDs) define interactions and serve to stimulate communication across functional disciplines. In this role, they are inherently limited to one-on-one or one-on-few interactions and do not capture the nature of the fully integrated system. They only capture interactions at defined boundaries.