Systems Life Cycle and Design Processes

This chapter provides an overview of systems life cycle and system engineering design processes. For each of the systems life cycle phases, the major forms and evolution of the systems are described in detail. The main systems design elements are defined along with the system life cycle. These elements include system requirements, function, components, prototypes, etc., and their interrelationships within the systems. These elements are also cross-defined using Zuken Vitech GENESYS ®. In the second part of the chapter, systems design process is described in detail. In each of the design processes, major objectives, design activities, and milestones are introduced, as well as the design evaluation for each of the design phases. At the end of the chapter, three mostly applied design models are reviewed and their unique features and pros and cons are compared, in order to find the best model for a specific design.