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1 Function Based Design Of Complex, Complicated Systems
Author(s) -
Shell A D
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.1999.tb00164.x
Subject(s) - computer science , function (biology) , notation , systems design , process (computing) , set (abstract data type) , component (thermodynamics) , identification (biology) , decomposition , functional decomposition , software engineering , mathematics , programming language , ecology , physics , botany , arithmetic , evolutionary biology , machine learning , biology , thermodynamics
The ‘top‐down’ system design process of functional decomposition is increasingly being criticised as simplistic, outmoded, and (in particular) too ‘reductionist’. Its use on large, complex systems is frequently portrayed as naive and impractical. There is much comment on the need to concentrate, instead, on the ‘emergent behaviours’ of systems, and to adopt a ‘holistic’ design approach in which a system solution is ‘evolved’ through a process of system design synthesis. This paper presents a counter‐argument that top‐down design decomposition can, in fact, be a highly efficient way to produce good (optimal) system solutions . Many of the fundamentals of function based system design are addressed: the central role of system function in the design process; the characterisation of system complexity and complication; the identification and specification of component requirements; and the determination of optimal design solutions. An established mathematical theory of systems design, using formal constructs and set‐theory notation, is used as the basis for the presentation of ideas.