ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief review of the origins and evolution of systems engineering through to the early 21st century. It describes a summary of the background of the systems engineering discipline and the evolution between the systems engineering and project management disciplines, and other standards-generating organizations that led to complementary and intersecting processes. The chapter provides a comprehensive view of the process discipline evolution and reiterates the coherent approach that will ensure that the highly complex projects of the future are attainable. Systems engineering first emerged as a method that could be applied to interesting inventions that could be mass produced and widely distributed. Standards are the established methods for accomplishing tasks within both the project management and the systems engineering disciplines. The chapter focuses on exploring the changing world and the anticipated impact on project implementation. Project complexity is expected to continue to increase as a globally connected society continues to incorporate more interconnected technology into the mainstream.
