Systems Decomposition Rule of 7

Number of levels of decomposition needed for a system is about log_7(number of parts)

Humans aren’t good at handling over 7 pieces of information at once. Thus, the number of levels of composition a system requires is best pegged at around ${\log }_7(numberofparts)\approx numberoflevelsofdecomposition$.

Basically, how many times can you divide the number of components by 7? That’s the number of system levels you probably should look at using.

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Source §

• MIT 16 842 - Fundamentals of Systems Engineering M

Related §

• Decomposition Understanding
• Decomposition Quote