Systems Engineering Glossary

Macro-level behaviors that cannot be predicted from studying the micro-level behaviors in isolation.

The final production product that when assembled or completed is ready for deployment

A proposal made by the seller to the acquirer recommending a change to the existing contract.

A technical change request to the technical baseline submitted to the Configuration Control Board (CCB).

Statements, often derived from experience, about what makes a design better.

An engineering life cycle technical review that confirms that the developed engineering products are sufficiently correct and mature to continue the development to the next phase/ step.

The highest-level engineering forum convened to provide technical oversight to assist the Project Manager.  Engineering Change Requests (ECR) are reviewed to determine their impact and necessity to prior consideration for incorporation into a system baseline.

A block diagram that represents control flows and data flows as well as system functions and flow.

A holistic view and a way for enabling design, development, and communication and understanding of the enterprise.  It helps manage the complexity of the enterprise by aligning business strategies and implementations, and facilitating rapid change.

A process that separates business rules from programming code to improve decision-making.  It is maintained by business users, rather than software developers.

A software architecture model used to design and implement communications between interacting software applications in a Service-Based Architecture (SBA).

A generic reference to any part of the system of interest at any level of the system hierarchy (e.g., a component, element, segment, or even the system itself).

The minimum accomplishments necessary to enter into the next life cycle phase or level of technical maturity.

The standards by which accomplishments of required technical performance may be assessed.

The event detection triggers that activate Service-Based Architecture (SBA) services.  This is helpful when an anomaly or an opportunity occurs.

A product life cycle that relies on existing technology and enhances system capabilities as new technologies become available.

The accomplishments that must be demonstrated before an effort can progress further.  The criteria usually are selected to monitor progress on technical, schedule, or risk areas.

The inability of an entity to perform as intended.

A group of systems that provide similar capabilities that use different approaches to achieve the same goal.  A family of systems does not acquire qualitatively new properties as a result of any interactions among the constituent systems.

Hardware combined with read-only software that is not easily modified.