The creation of complex integrated systems is, in itself, complex. It requires immense planning and a large team of people with diverse backgrounds based in dispersed geographical locations (and countries) supposedly working to a coordinated schedule and cost. The systems engineering task is not new, but recent scales most definitely are. The world is now capable of designing and manufacturing systems whose complexity was not considered possible 10 years ago. While many are trained to think in terms of a complete system, where -everything- is designed and produced by a single project team, today such systems involve integrating subsystems and components (which are also complex) that have been developed by other project teams. Inevitably, this introduces additional complexities, involving elements out of the direct control of the project, but which are essential to its overall success.
In addition to traditional systems engineering topics of hardware and software design, testab
