5
Integration in Systems Engineering Context

Introduction to Systems Engineering
Systems engineering was originally envisioned to deal with the complexity of
products from inception through their delivery (Schlager 1956). Ten years
later, with the promise of being able to develop new, flexible means of controlling equipment through software programming structures, systems engineering changed its repertoire and emphasis from discovering and integrating
satisfactory components to a broader systems perspective which spanned the
lifecycle of the product or service. “The integration phase is usually a long
one, since it extends throughout the entire period of design and construction
of the experimental system equipment” (Schlager 1956). The backbone of systems engineering is integration, integration in both the general sense of
bringing ideas, people, and objects together in the form of a project to deliver
a product or service, and in the specific instance of discovering and integrating satisfactory components.
Much has changed since Kenneth Schlager wrote these early thoughts
about a new field of engineering called systems engineering. According to a
RAND Corporation report (Stem et al. 2006 citing Przemieniecki 1993), systems engineering came into its own right as a discipline along with the
development of the U.S. missile program in the 1950s. Prior to that, systems
engineering was a fledgling, deracinated from the rank-and-file engineers
who knew their problem set was broader than their training. A progeny of
two needs, one commercial and the other military, systems engineering was
challenged to address two seemingly different types of problems—those
that were defined in terms of requirements (for customers who had specific
needs) and those that were driven by the economics of services (those who
wanted to lower costs and improve the user’s experience). Customers with
specific needs often drive development with hard requirements for technical
performance—more than currently available in the existing product, sometimes pushing the edge of what is physically possible. Customers driven by
the economics of better service to their customers often consider schedule
before cost. Commercial firms must be attentive to market demands that are
often driven by product fashion and perceptions of quality of service. The
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