ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an approach to modeling the systems engineering (SE) process, originally inspired by the highly optimized tolerance (HOT) framework for understanding complexity in designed systems. It describes a model of interacting stakeholders that influence an SE process connected with an enterprise. High- level, optimal control- theoretic and differential- game models of the systems engineering process represent in a simplified way the cost, schedule, and performance tradeoffs inherent in systems engineering. SE in the context of a large complex government or private enterprise is extremely challenging and many instances of such complex SE efforts have been problematic. The assumption behind “optimization” in the optimal control framework for a single modeled stakeholder is that SE decision makers make choices reflecting cost, schedule, and performance trade- offs. HOT is a framework for understanding certain aspects of complexity in designed or engineered systems.
