A Conceptual Model of Systems Engineering

Abstract

Systems engineering is widely perceived as an empirical discipline, with a need for theoretical foundations that can facilitate reasoning about practice. This is an attempt to help build such foundations by systems‐theoretic inquiry into the nature of the relationship between knowledge and engineering. We conceptualize this relationship in terms of four worlds: the real world, the world of systems models, a world of aspect knowledge, and a world of wholes knowledge: knowledge that indicates how aspects come together and also how wholes relate to each other. This leads us to a generative understanding of systems engineering: synthesizing aspects to develop blocks; and generating the network of blocks that form a system, through recursive performance of three activities: decomposition, dependency closure and refinement. The problem of systems engineering practice involves augmenting this core with the concerns of problem formulation, design of the supporting ecosystem, and the need for closing gaps between the model world and real world. We derive some initial confidence in the validity and value of this strawman model by examining its ability to explain some aspects of current systems engineering practice, and the insights it provides into how we can integrate system modeling across knowledge domains.

Modular Semantically Integrated System Modelling

“…This paper builds on our previous work (Natarajan 2018, Natarajan 2019) that establishes the required conceptual foundations, briefly recapitulated here. A look at the nature of systems knowledge formation shows us that roles are central to how multiple knowledge domains come together in systems, and how as people we are able to understand the world in modular chunks.…”

Exploring Safety Culture in Urban Air Mobility: System of Systems Perspectives Using Enterprise Architecture

“…Models can be used to represent the real world for analysis purposes and support the construction of wholes (synthesis world). The aspect knowledge world is the foundational knowledge that can model phenomena (science) and express abstractions [32]. In the information systems discipline, conceptual modeling is a foundational process for capturing, organizing, and representing the essential elements of a system or domain [33].…”

“…Theoretical foundations for conceptual modeling include ontological, epistemological, linguistic, and pragmatic principles [34]. These foundations allow for the creation of conceptual models capable of representing a domain and supporting the solution given a concern [32]. The model's ability to capture knowledge about the relevant domain depends on ontology, semantics, language, and communicative acts [34].…”