This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Readings

[NASA SEH] = NASA. NASA Systems Engineering Handbook. NASA/SP-2007-6105, Rev 1. Washington, DC: NASA, December 2007. (PDF - 8.0MB)

AIAA = American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
IEEE = Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

SES # TOPICS READINGS
1 Systems engineering overview

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Chapters 1, 2, and 3 (pp. 1-30), section 6.1 (pp. 112-130), section 7.6 (p. 261), appendix A (pp. 263-265), appendix B (pp. 266-278), appendix J (pp. 303-306), appendix K (p. 308), and appendix P (pp. 317-320).

Optional

Haskins, Cecilia, ed. INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook: A Guide for System Lifecycle Processes and Activities. INCOSE-TP-2003-002-03, version 3. San Diego, CA: International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), June 2006.
2 Stakeholder analysis

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 4.1 (pp. 31-39) and section 7.1 (pp. 217-233).

Papers

Rebentisch, Eric, Edward Crawley, Geilson Loureiro, John Dickmann, and Sandro Catanzaro. "Using Stakeholder Value Analysis to Build Exploration Sustainability." 1st Space Exploration Conference: Continuing the Voyage of Discovery, AIAA-2005-2553, Orlando, Florida, January 30-31, 2005.
3 Requirements definition

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 4.2 (pp. 40-48), section 6.2 (pp. 131-135), appendix C (pp. 279-281), and appendix D (pp. 282-283).

Papers

Hauser, John R., and Don Clausing. "The House of Quality." Harvard Business Review 66, no. 3 (May-June 1988): 63-73.

de Weck, Olivier L., and Marshall B. Jones. "Isoperformance: Analysis and Design of Complex Systems with Desired Outcomes." Systems Engineering 9, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 45-61.
4 System architecture and concept generation

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 4.3 (pp. 49-54), section 7.2 (pp. 234-240), appendix F (pp. 285-292), and appendix G (pp. 293-298).

Papers

Crawley, Edward, Olivier de Weck, Steven Eppinger, Christopher Magee, Joel Moses, Warren Seering, Joel Schindall, David Wallace, and Daniel Whitney. "The Influence of Architecture in Engineering Systems." Monograph, 1st Engineering Systems Symposium, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 29-31, 2004. (PDF)
5 Tradespace exploration and concept selection

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 4.4 (pp. 55-70), section 6.8 (pp. 197-216), and appendix O (p. 316).

Papers

Ross, Adam M., Daniel Hastings, Joyce Warmkessel, Nathan Diller, "Multi-Attribute Tradespace Exploration as Front End for Effective Space System." Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets 41, no. 1 (January-February 2004): 20-28.
6 Design definition and multidisciplinary optimization

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 5.1 (pp. 73-77), section 6.5 (pp. 151-157), section 6.6 (pp. 158-165), section 7.3 (pp. 242-245), and appendix M (p. 311).

Papers

Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, Jaroslaw, Jeremy S. Agte, Robert R. Sandusky. "Bi-level Integrated System Synthesis." AIAA Journal 38, no. 1 (2000): 164-172.

Tedford, Nathan, and Joaquim Martins. "Benchmarking Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Algorithms." Optimization and Engineering 11, no. 1 (February 2010): 159-183.
7 Human factors

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 7.4 (pp. 246-255).

Papers

Cummings, Mary L., and Paul J. Mitchell. "Predicting Controller Capacity in Supervisory Control of Multiple UAVs." IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans 38, no. 2 (March 2008): 451-460.
8 Systems integration and interface management

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 5.2 (pp. 78-82), section 6.3 (pp. 136-138), section 6.7 (pp. 166-196), appendix H (pp. 299-300), appendix L (pp. 309-310), and appendix N (pp. 312-315).

Papers

Tahan, Meir, and Joseph Z. Ben-Asher. "Modeling and Analysis of Integration Processes for Engineering Systems." Systems Engineering 8, no. 1 (2005): 62-77.
9 Verification and validation

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 5.3 (pp. 83-97), section 5.4 (98-105), appendix E (p. 284), and appendix I (p. 301).

Papers

MacCormack, Alan. "Mission to Mars (A)." Harvard Business School Case. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-603-083, January 15, 2004.
10 System safety

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 6.4 (pp. 139-150), section 7.5 (pp. 256-260), and appendix Q (pp. 321-322).

Papers

Leveson, Nancy. "A New Accident Model for Engineering Safer Systems." Safety Science 42, no. 4 (April 2004): 237-270.
11 Commissioning and operations

Handbook

[NASA SEH] Section 5.5 (pp. 106-110).

Papers

Shishko, Robert. "Developing Analogy Cost Estimates for Space Missions." Space 2004 Conference and Exhibit, AIAA-2004-6012, San Diego, California, Sep. 28-30, 2004.
12 Lifecycle management

Handbook

Software and Systems Engineering Standards Committee of the IEEE Computer Society. International Standard: Systems and software engineering — System life cycle processes, Ingénierie des systèmes et du logiciel — Processus du cycle de vie du système. ISO/IEC 15288:2008(E), IEEE Std 15288-2008, 2nd ed. Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), February 2008. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)

Papers

de Weck, Olivier L., Richard de Neufville, and Mathieu Chaize. "Staged Deployment of Communications Satellite Constellations in Low Earth Orbit." Journal of Aerospace Computing, Information, and Communication 1, no. 3 (March 2004): 119-136.