Quote by Dr. Mike Griffin introduction Systems Engineering
System engineering as it is taught and practiced is fundamentally concerned with identifying the separable elements or blocks of a proposed design, characterizing the intended relationships between and among those elements, and verifying that the actual configuration is fabricated and operated as intended in its environment. For large complex systems – a modern transport aircraft, a launch vehicle or spacecraft, a power plant, a submarine – this is no small feat, and the methods, processes, and tools which have developed over the last half-century to formalize and systematize it as an essential engineering discipline are not to be slighted. Yet failures continue to occur, often of the most glaring and consequential nature, commonly at the boundaries or interfaces between elements, often due to uncontrolled, unanticipated and unwanted interactions between elements, in many cases between elements thought to be entirely separate.
- Dr. Mike Griffin, in this article in 2010
He actually goes on to say this is not a good enough way to think about SE, and describe Elegant Systems in SE.