Tag: Model-Based Systems Engineering

The Three Systems

We often talk about understanding the three systems involved in the design space: the system under design, the context system, and the designing system. These three systems are depicted in Figure 1 from Vitech’s MBSE Primer, shown below. As the illustration makes clear, not only does the design team need …

The Two Miracles of Systems Engineering

We have all seen some variant of the famous Sidney Harris cartoon – two people standing at the chalkboard, an incredibly complex series of equations or process flow on the left, a simplification or result on the right, and the words “then a miracle occurs” in the middle. It’s an …

Mightier than the Pen

In 1839, Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote in his play Richelieu, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” In this, Bulwer-Lytton meant to say that communicating thoughts was more powerful in effecting change than committing acts of violence through war. But might there be something more powerful than the pen? Systems engineers …

Hitting the Target Audience

The choice of representations in model-based systems engineering (MBSE) turns on the needs of the audience for understanding. The purpose of communication is to express the ideas of the sender in a way that produces a common understanding between the sender and the receiver. Those versed in communication know achieving …