ABSTRACT
The Systems Engineering (SE) Body of Knowledge defines three types of SE: product SE, enterprise SE, and service SE. The SE of an aircraft is product SE. The official definition of SE adopted by INCOSE is as follows: SE is an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of successful systems. It focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in the development cycle, documenting requirements, and then proceeding with design synthesis and system validation while considering the complete problem: operations, cost and schedule, performance, training and support, test, manufacturing, and disposal. SE considers both the business and the technical needs of all customers with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user needs. Essential to the discussion of systems engineering in any domain is an understanding of what a system is and the many manifestations of it. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
