ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 helps you to understand the nature of systems engineering (because comparing the content of the different literature and courses on systems engineering is confusing) by discussing the most useful perceptions of system engineering sorted by the HTPs. Perceptions include the two paradigms, the three types and five layers of systems engineering. After discussing the perceptions and inferences, the chapter explains what systems engineering is, the reason for the different opinions on the nature of systems engineering, the reason systems engineering succeeds at times and fails at other times, the reason systems engineering seems to overlap project management and problem-solving, the reason the textbooks about systems engineering cover such different topics, what system engineers actually do in the workplace and the reason there no standard definition of a system.
