- 1.1. Purpose and Scope
- 1.2. The System Development Process
- 1.3. Underlying Principles
- 1.4. What's in a Name?
- 1.5. Audience for and Structure of the Book
- 1.6. A Participative Case Study on the Web
- 1.7. A Caveat
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
1.5. Audience for and Structure of the Book
The intended audience for this book includes system managers, system architects, system engineers, and managers and engineers in all of the diverse engineering technologies, such as mechanical, electrical, electronic, hydraulic, chemical, manufacturing, computer hardware, and computer software. This book may also be used as a text for graduate courses in system engineering. It is intentional that no exercises are included: Practical examples from the students’ own experiences are much better than “canned” exercises in a book. However, the case studies in Parts I and II can serve as exercises for students to study, critique, extend, and modify.
There are two main parts in this book:
- Part I: Concepts: An introduction to the system approach, to system models, to the system development process, and to the application of the models to the process. A hospital monitoring system is used as an illustrative case study.
- Part II: Case Study—Groundwater Analysis System: An in-depth look at the development of a highly multidisciplinary system.
These parts are followed by three important sections:
- Appendix: Changes, Improvements, and Misconceptions Since the Methods’ Introduction: Summarizes changes, improvements, and misconceptions regarding the methods and their use since Strategies for Real-Time System Specification was written. This appendix should be particularly helpful to those who have already used the methods, and need a quick update on what is different about them in this book.
- Glossary: Definitions of words, phrases, acronyms, and abbreviations commonly used in system development using the Hatley/Hruschka/Pirbhai architecture and requirements methods.
- Bibliography: Useful references used throughout the book to point to other sources of information on specific topics.
All the chapters in Part I, and the case study in Part II, close with summaries. These can be used for a quick overview of the book before it is read in depth.