1. State the problem. Stating the problem is the most important systems engineering task. It entails identifying customers, understanding customer needs, establishing the need for [...]]]> Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary process that ensures that the customer’s needs are satisfied throughout a system’s entire life cycle. This process is comprised of the following seven tasks.

1. State the problem. Stating the problem is the most important systems engineering task. It entails identifying customers, understanding customer needs, establishing the need for change, discovering requirements and defining system functions.
2. Investigate alternatives. Alternatives are investigated and evaluated based on performance, cost and risk.
3. Model the system. Running models clarifies requirements, reveals bottlenecks and fragmented activities, reduces cost and exposes duplication of efforts.
4. Integrate. Integration means designing interfaces and bringing system elements together so they work as a whole. This requires extensive communication and coordination.
5. Launch the system. Launching the system means running the system and producing outputs — making the system do what it was intended to do.
6. Assess performance. Performance is assessed using evaluation criteria, technical performance measures and measures — measurement is the key. If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it. If you cannot control it, you cannot improve it.
7. Re-evaluation. Re-evaluation should be a continual and iterative process with many parallel loops.

The purpose of systems engineering is to produce systems that satisfy the customers’ needs, increase the probability of system success, reduce risk and reduce total-life-cycle cost.
Systems engineering, which stands at the interface between engineering and management, is conspicuously practical and down to earth. In contrast, systems theories, which lie at the core of engineering science, are mathematical and rather abstract. This in no way implies that systems theories are impractical; they are practical in a general way. Connecting them to systems engineering is the notion of function, through which systems theories are applied to particular designs.

Ex: When something is typed on a word document by pressing a key, same is displayed on the monitor. The [...]]]> BATCH SYSTEMS : They are a set of programs that perform certain activities which do not require any kind of input from the user. Batch systems contain one or more API which perform various tasks.

Ex: When something is typed on a word document by pressing a key, same is displayed on the monitor. The process of conversion of user input of the key to machine language and then displaying what you have typed on monitor is performed by batch system.

EVENT CONTROL SYSTEMS : These systems process real time data to provide the user with results for the command that has been given.

Ex: When you press Ctrl + S, it tells the computer to save the document. This communication is provided by the event controls that are pre-defined in the system.

PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEMS : When two systems communicate, the co-ordination or data transfer becomes vital. Process control systems are the one’s that receive data from a system and instruct the sending system to perform specific tasks based on the reply sent by the receiving system.

PROCEDURE CONTROL SYSTEMS : These systems are one’s which control the functions of another system.

MESSAGE PROCESSING SYSTEMS : A simple example to explain these kind of systems is the SMS management software used by the mobile operator which handles the incoming and outgoing messages.

DIAGNOSTIC SOFTWARE SYSTEMS : These systems help in diagnosing the computer hardware components.
Ex: The “NEW HARDWARE FOUND” dialogue seen when you plug in a new device to the computer is an example of these kind of systems.

SENSOR & SIGNAL PROCESSING SYSTEMS : In these systems the computer receives input in form of signals and then transforms the signals to a user understandable output.