Essay --

Week 2: Discussion 1 – Bring Systems into Being Colorado Technical University CS672: Systems Engineering Methods Pooja Kattimani Instructor: Professor John King January 13, 2014 Bring Systems into Being What are some characteristics of human-made or engineered systems that distinguish it from natural system? The characteristics of human made systems which will distinguish from natural system are as follows: †¢ Human made systems are those systems which are brought into being by human intervention through components, attributes or relationships between them, whereas the natural systems are brought into being by a natural process. Example: example for human made systems is solution to flooding problem of Nile river, example for natural system are water cycle, food chain etc. †¢ Human made systems have some impact on natural world. Example: When Aswan Dam was built on Nile River, it had impact on the natural world. Problems such as rapid erosion of Nile delta, fishing industry was reduced in eastern Mediterranean etc. whereas Natural systems exhibit equilibrium and high degree of order Example water cycle. In natural system material flows are cyclic in nature. †¢ Human made systems are created by beginning with identifying the needs of customer and ending with phase out and disposal, whereas the natural systems have no dead ends and no wastes. 2. Pick a product, describe the enabling system that is required to bring it into being, and explain the importance of engineering the system and product together. Consider an automotive product to be developed in automotive industry. For most organizations lack of visibility of data, technology and people in the product development life cycle cause challenges to organizations. Use of... ...sons: †¢ Customer communication step in spiral model helps to know the needs of customer and gather complete requirements necessary to develop the system. †¢ In Spiral model there is avoidance of risk is enhanced because there is high amount of risk analysis. †¢ Software can be developed in the early stages of software development life cycle. †¢ It is good for larger projects because it is iterative process, when it proceeds through several stages of lifecycle, each time a different prototype is developed. Hence prototype can be evaluated for risk before proceeding to next step. †¢ Additional functionality can be added in later stages of development cycle if required. References Blanchard B. S. & Fabrycky W. J. (2011), Systems Engineering and Analysis, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Blanchard B. S. (2008), Systems Engineering Management, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Inc.