Systems engineering: A growing concept

Five Perspectives on Transdisciplinary Systems Engineering

“…Elmer Engstrom (1957) outlined two essential requirements for successful systems engineering: defining clear objectives and thoroughly considering all the factors that bear upon the possibility of achieving those and their interrelations. This approach was exemplified in RCA's development of the compatible color television system.…”

A Historical Perspective on Development of Systems Engineering Discipline: A Review and Analysis

“…Among these projects were the pyramids in Egypt, the water distribution and irrigations systems in Mesopotamia, and the infrastructure expansion in Greece and Rome, as well as the more modern 19th-century canals and railroads (Kasser 2002). The construction of John Ericsson's iron-clad battleship from the Civil War era presented another example of historical evidence of the use of SE (Engstrom 1957). The earliest foundations of SE can be traced to Smuts (1926) who first coined the term "holon" to describe the "wholeness or the integration of the elements of a system."…”

“…A noteworthy example of invention during World War II were "black boxes" used on aircraft. Demand for multiple types of electronic gear essential for airborne operations triggered the development of a widespread types of elemental devices, commonly known as "black boxes" (Engstrom 1957). These inventive avionic architectures included multiple systems that were synchronized with the aircraft system to perform individual functions (Tolk et al 2011).…”

“…The RAND Corporation, originated in 1946 by the United States Air Force, developed a "systems analysis" methodology which is still considered to be one of the fundamental concepts of SE. RCA also deployed the "systems approach" for the advancement of electronically scanned, black and white television (Engstrom 1957). In 1943, to further advance the Aircraft Warning Communication Service, the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) formed a systems committee in conjunction with Bell Laboratories to conduct a project named C-79 (Buede and Miller 2016).Bell Laboratories was com-prised of three different groups; systems engineering, design and development, and pure research (Kelly 1950).…”

“…The principle behind their proposition was that the integration of satisfactory components does not always produce a satisfactory system to achieve the desired goal. Engstrom (1957) provided a basic definition of SE writing that "This method is best described by stating the two major requirements for its success: first, a determination of the objective that is to be reached; and second, a thorough consideration of all factors that bear upon the possibility of reaching the objective, and the relationships among these factors(p.1)." Although Engstrom first introduced the concept of "interdisciplinary approach" in the SE process, he did not explicitly use the phrase "interdisciplinary approach" but rather coined the term "collaborative work."…”