What is systems engineering?

Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary process that ensures that the customers` needs are satisfied throughout a system`s entire life cycle. This process includes: understanding customer needs; stating the problem; specifying requirements; defining performance and cost measures, prescribing tests, validating requirements, conducting design reviews, exploring alternative concepts, sensitivity analyses, functional decomposition, system design, designing and managing interfaces, system integration, total system test, configuration management, risk management, reliability analysis; total quality management; project management; and documentation. Material for this paper was gathered from senior Systems Engineers at Sandia National Laboratories

The requirements discovery process

Cost and schedule overruns are often caused by poor requirements that are produced by people who do not understand the requirement process. This paper provides a high-level overview of the requirements discovery process

Discovering system requirements

Cost and schedule overruns are often caused by poor requirements that are produced by people who do not understand the requirements process. This report provides a high-level overview of the system requirements process, explaining types, sources, and characteristics of good requirements. System requirements, however, are seldom stated by the customer. Therefore, this report shows ways to help you work with your customer to discover the system requirements. It also explains terminology commonly used in the requirements development field, such as verification, validation, technical performance measures, and the various design reviews