An overview of engineering systems that describes the new challenges posed for twenty-first-century engineers by today's highly complex sociotechnical systems. Engineering, for much of the twentieth century, was mainly about artifacts and inventions. Now, it's increasingly about complex systems. As the airplane taxis to the gate, you access the Internet and check email with your PDA, linking the communication and transportation systems. At home, you recharge your plug-in hybrid vehicle, linking transportation to the electricity grid. Today's large-scale, highly complex sociotechnical systems converge, interact, and depend on each other in ways engineers of old could barely have imagined. As scale, scope, and complexity increase, engineers consider technical and social issues together in a highly integrated way as they design flexible, adaptable, robust systems that can be easily modified and reconfigured to satisfy changing requirements and new technological opportunities. Engineering Systems offers a comprehensive examination of such systems and the associated emerging field of study. Through scholarly discussion, concrete examples, and history, the authors consider the engineer's changing role, new ways to model and analyze these systems, the impacts on engineering education, and the future challenges of meeting human needs through the technologically enabled systems of today and tomorrow.

This unique resource delivers complete, easy-to-understand coverage of the management of complex technical projects through systems engineering. Written for a wide spectrum of readers, from novices to experienced practitioners, the book holds the solution to delivering projects on time and within budget, avoiding the failures and inefficiencies of past efforts.

Presents the origins and evolution of the systems engineering discipline and helps readers gain a personal familiarity with systems engineering experts: their experience, opinions and attitudes in this field This book is based on a qualitative study that includes dozens of in-depth interviews with experts in the systems engineering field. This book is broken into three main parts. The first part is a general overview of the systems engineering field. The second part discusses the changes the systems engineering discipline has undergone with the analysis as case studies of two significant Israeli defence systems projects: the IAI Lavi project and the Iron Dome project. The third part of this book contains interviews with renowned experts in the systems engineering field. This part is divided into five sections: systems engineering as the answer to the challenges of a complex technological world – the aerospace industries; the development of systems engineering in the commercial and industrial worlds, and in complex civil systems; the impact of the accelerated development of the computing world on systems engineering processes; systems engineering and the academic world; and systems engineering in the world of training and consulting. This book presents the main insights derived from the interviews, and an analysis and discussion of the question of the relevance of systems engineering to the management world. Some highlights of this book are that it Integrates the technological aspects with the behavioural aspects of the field Serves managerial needs of engineering and management in general, so managers with no technical background can derive knowledge from this book Provides approaches for seeing beyond technology-understanding the mission Managing and Engineering Complex Technological Systems is a great resource on management for managers as well as systems engineers.

Presents the origins and evolution of the systems engineeringdiscipline and helps readers gain a personal familiarity withsystems engineering experts: their experience, opinions andattitudes in this field This book is based on a qualitative study that includes dozensof in-depth interviews with experts in the systems engineeringfield. This book is broken into three main parts. The first part isa general overview of the systems engineering field. The secondpart discusses the changes the systems engineering discipline hasundergone with the analysis as case studies of two significantIsraeli defence systems projects: the IAI Lavi project and the IronDome project. The third part of this book contains interviews with renownedexperts in the systems engineering field. This part is divided intofive sections: systems engineering as the answer to the challengesof a complex technological world – the aerospace industries;the development of systems engineering in the commercial andindustrial worlds, and in complex civil systems; the impact of theaccelerated development of the computing world on systemsengineering processes; systems engineering and the academic world;and systems engineering in the world of training and consulting. This book presents the main insights derived from the interviews,and an analysis and discussion of the question of the relevance ofsystems engineering to the management world. Some highlights ofthis book are that it Integrates the technological aspects with the behaviouralaspects of the field Serves managerial needs of engineering and management ingeneral, so managers with no technical background can deriveknowledge from this book Provides approaches for seeing beyond technology-understandingthe mission Managing and Engineering Complex Technological Systems isa great resource on management for managers as well as systemsengineers.

This book sheds light on the large-scale engineering systems that shape and guide our everyday lives. It does this by bringing together the latest research and practice defining the emerging field of Complex Engineered Systems. Understanding, designing, building and controlling such complex systems is going to be a central challenge for engineers in the coming decades. This book is a step toward addressing that challenge.

This volume features the proceedings of the 14th ISPE Conference on Concurrent Engineering, held in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil, on the 16th – 20th of July 2007. It highlights the application of concurrent engineering to the development of complex systems.

Although usually well-funded, systems development projects are often late to market and over budget. Worse still, many are obsolete before they can be deployed or the program is cancelled before delivery. Clearly, it is time for a new approach. With coverage ranging from the complex characteristics and behaviors of enterprises to the challenges the