Page 268 - Mechanical Engineers' Handbook (Volume 2)

1 Introduction 259

• Institutional and organizational considerations play an important role.
• There is a need for explicit and explicable consideration of the efficiency, effective-
ness, and equity of alternative courses of action.
There are a number of results potentially attainable from use of systems engineering ap-
proaches. These include:
• Identification of perceived needs in terms of identified objectives and values of a client
group
• Identification or definition of a set of user or client requirements for the product system
or service system that will ultimately be fielded
• Enhanced identification of a wide range of proposed alternatives or policies that might
satisfy these needs, achieve the objectives of the clients in a high-quality and trust-
worthy fashion, and fulfill the requirements definition
• Increased understanding of issues that led to the effort and the impacts of alternative
actions upon these issues
• Ranking of these identified alternative courses of action in terms of the utility (benefits
and costs) in achieving objectives, satisfying needs, and fulfilling requirements
• A set of alternatives that is selected for implementation, generally by a group of
content specialists responsible for detailed design and implementation, and an appro-
priate plan for action to achieve this implementation

Ultimately these action plans result in a working product or service, each of which is main-
tained over time in subsequent phases of the postdeployment efforts that also involve systems
engineering.
To develop professionals capable of coping satisfactorily with diverse factors involved
in widescope problem solving is a primary goal of systems engineering and systems engi-
neering education. This does not imply that a single individual or even a small group can,
despite its strong motivation, solve all of the problems involved in a systems study. Such a
requirement would demand total and absolute intellectual maturity on the part of the systems
engineer and such is surely not realistic. It is also unrealistic to believe that issues can be
resolved without very close association with a number of people who have stakes, and who
thereby become stakeholders, in problem solution efforts. Consequently, systems engineers
must be capable of facilitation and communication of knowledge between the diverse groups
of professionals, and their publics, that are involved in wide-scope problem solving. This
requires that systems engineers be knowledgeable and able to use not only the technical
methods-based tools that are needed for issue and problem resolution, but also the behavioral
constructs and management abilities that are needed for resolution of complex, large-scale
problems. Intelligence, imagination, and creativity are necessary but not sufficient for proper
use of the procedures of systems engineering. Facility in human relations and effectiveness
as a broker of information among parties at interest in a systems engineering program are
very much needed as well.
It is this blending of the technical, managerial, and behavioral that is a normative goal
of success for systems engineering education and for systems engineering professional prac-
tice. Thus, systems engineering involves:
• The sciences and the various methods, analysis, and measurement perspectives
associated with the sciences
• Life-cycle process models for definition, development, and deployment of systems