Effective Model-Based Systems Engineering

Systems and enterprises (often referred to as systems-of-systems) that employ multiple advanced technologies and achieve ever-higher levels of complexity have become mainstays of the modern world. Managing the complexity of these systems, especially to create solutions to the needs of system users and other stakeholders within acceptable cost and schedule, is a recurring challenge to the Systems Engineering (SE) community. Spectacular progress in mechanical and electronic devices, materials, sensors, energy generation and control, vehicles and propulsion, communications and networking, computing and software, and many other fields creates both new capabilities and new demands for tools and methods to effectively exploit them. Communities as diverse as the sciences, commercial enterprises, education, government, academia, and the military frequently report that programs aimed at delivering new capabilities based on advanced technology have overrun their budgets and schedules, failed to meet their objectives, or simply overwhelmed the capabilities of system developers and users.