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Overarching Process for Systems Engineering and Design

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Handbook of Model-Based Systems Engineering

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Abstract

This chapter presents three key processes central to systems engineering: requirements discovery, tradeoff studies, and risk analysis. It compares and contrasts these three processes and then combines them into a single Overarching Process. The three original processes can then be viewed as specific tailorings of the Overarching (superset) Process. Similarly, the Overarching Process can be viewed as a top-level process (a superset) for model-based system engineering (MBSE) implementations. The Overarching Process itself is not an example of model-based systems engineering, except at a high level. This chapter also identifies the activities in the Overarching Process that contribute to uncertainty. All of these activities involve human decision-making. Therefore, most mistakes caused by uncertainty are found in the system models and documentation. These mistakes often arise from confirmation bias, severity amplifiers, and framing. The two key examples used in this chapter are the Cookie Acquisition System and the BaConLaws model for baseball-bat collisions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Systems and Industrial Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    A. Terry Bahill

  2. Systems Architecting and Engineering, Astronautical Engineering Department, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Azad M. Madni

Authors
  1. A. Terry Bahill
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  2. Azad M. Madni
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Terry Bahill .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Azad M. Madni

  2. Lockheed Martin (United States), Bethesda, MD, USA

    Norman Augustine

  3. University of Southern California, Los Angelies, CA, USA

    Michael Sievers

Section Editor information

  1. Systems Architecting and Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Azad M. Madni

  2. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Michael W. Sievers

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Bahill, A.T., Madni, A.M. (2022). Overarching Process for Systems Engineering and Design. In: Madni, A.M., Augustine, N., Sievers, M. (eds) Handbook of Model-Based Systems Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27486-3_16-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27486-3_16-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-27486-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-27486-3

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