ABSTRACT
As noted in the introduction, this book is not intended as a definitive work, but rather as an early step toward the creation of a body of knowledge about the engineering, development, and evolution of the large-scale systems that we term “megasystems.” We hope it serves to foster and contribute to a nascent but expanding dialogue among practitioners, academicians, researchers, and customers. With this goal in mind, we have sought to define and frame the concepts and practicalities of engineering mega-systems, examine some of the dimensions, and develop a framework to help us explore them further. Just as traditional systems engineering evolved through practice in the post-World War II era, we fully expect that the engineering of this class of systems will also evolve through practice. In this way the community will collaboratively generate a body of precepts, practices, and even tools that will prove useful in the engineering, development, and evolution of this class of systems. This chapter synthesizes the emerging systems engineering tenets and suggests a way ahead.
