Systems Engineering Glossary

An asset, such as people, equipment, facilities, technology, and budget used to perform project tasks.

A formal process to evaluate and approve the current status of an approach, plan, or design and make a decision about next steps.

The potential for failure to achieve established/ approved objectives for safety, technical performance, schedule, or cost on a project.

A process to develop decision alternatives with an explicit consideration of the risk associated with those alternatives.

The examination of the probability that a given risk will occur and the seriousness of the impact.

The process of identifying all system (product) and programmatic risks.

A systematic, continuous process that identifies, assess, plans, mitigates, tracks, controls, and documents project risks throughout the life cycle.

The process for applying cybersecurity to systems throughout the product life cycle.

A document that details anticipated risks and identifies strategies to ameliorate those threats or hazards that can adversely affect the project.

A time-based plan of milestones/ activities for performing work or achieving an objective.

A group of functionally related items in the system hierarchy.

A developer framework for building Service-Based Architecture services.  It provides both multi-protocol and multi-language support.

The principles, structures, and methodologies for linking together loosely coupled systems/ services, typically through shared data or common logic/ direction.

Principles, structures, and methodologies for linking together loosely coupled systems/ services, typically through shared data or common logic/ direction.  Also known as Service – Based Architecture.

An approach to solving complex, unstructured human problem situations based on holistic analysis and systems thinking.

The structure or structures of a system comprised of software components.  The architecture identifies constraints, connections, and the relationships among the components including databases and potentially physical implications.

Documentation of a project’s architectural overview, architecture specifications, and design rationale.

The application of a systematic approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software.

An artifact of he definition process that contains all of the requirements for a software product.  It is the starting point for software architecting.

Engineering discipline areas that focus on a specific aspect of a system rather than the whole, such as reliability, maintainability, cybersecurity, human factors, etc.