System Design: Basic Realities and Common Mytes

Designing a modern system is a complex process. The creation of a coherent system performance by the proper selection and combination of separate technologies, is in itself a unique process of scientific discovery and invention. When there is lack of insight into the TOTAL system design process, serious deficiencies in attaining desired system effectiveness is quite likely to result. With a view toward correcting deficiencies in defining integrated system design requirements, organized approaches have been made to superimpose formal system engineering procedures upon the basic hardware design process. Such procedures are supposed to yield increased system effectiveness in initial system designs, especially when the need dates for delivery and the budgeted costs are severely limiting factors. Although the basic purpose of such schemes may be commendable, namely, to provide a common system engineering approach, the practical effect of their introduction in most cases has been to create a dichotomy between hardware designers and system engineering-oriented personnel. This results primarily when the imposition of system engineering reporting procedures occurs ??after-the-fact?? of design decisions. The kind of system design implied in the proposed use of standardized system engineering procedures can be achieved only when they are completely understood and employed by hardwareoriented engineers as their own inherent approach to solving design problems resulting from system application requirements.