Question

Question 1

1. Explain what is meant by the term “system”. How do subsystems, systems and systems of systems differ?

2. Has the Australian government adopted a system engineering approach in its management of COVID-19? Explain your answer.

         

Question 2

1. Consider the conceptual design case study presented in the unit (Moggill Rd. / Coonan St. intersection upgrade). What additional information would you expect to be included in the actual project documents generated by the project team?

2. Safety critical recalls on cars being particularly newsworthy. Such recall of products due to safety concerns are costly to the organisation responsible and may damage reputation and consumer confidence. In terms of the Acquisition phase activities and artifacts, what caused such errors to occur? What strategies do you think that they could have taken to prevent these sorts of errors?

Question 3

1. Explain the difference between agile development (as initially formulated by the software community) and agility.

2. Explain how agility can be incorporated into engineered products / systems.

Question 4

1. Explain how a Requirements Breakdown Structure (RBS) is typically constructed. What information does it contain?

2. Discuss the process whereby requirements in the RBS are allocated to the physical architecture.

Question 5

1. Explain, using an example of your choosing, how TPMs constrain the evolving design process as we progress from conceptual design through to preliminary design and detailed design & development.
2. Discuss the relationship between project management and systems engineering.

Answer 1

Question 1 a) In the given question,we need to explain system and we need to compare systems,subsystem and system of systems.

Here, system can be defined as group of entities that are related to each other. These entities interact with each other and they work as a whole to form a system. In computer science, system is defined as a software system,hardware system or combination of both.The structure of a system is defined by its components and behaviour of a system is defined by the noticeable inter-process communication.

The system and subsystem are two different terms. In discreet mathematics we have subsets,which are part of a universal set. In the same way in computer science we have subsystems which are part of a larger system .A system can have several subsystems.Each subsystems operate independently and can run unique operations.All these subsystems when assembled together form the system.

System of systems is actually a collection of systems. The term 'system of systems' mean many independent systems which are capable of performing independent task , interoperate together for achieving some complex goal.

So, if we compare system, subsystems and system of systems , we can say that a system consists of number of subsystems .Moreover, a system of systems consists of number of systems.

Question 1 b) System engineering focuses on how to design,manage or combine complex systems.Yes, the Australian government has adopted a system engineering approach in its management of COVID-19. Australian government is using COVIDSafe app to identify individuals exposed to deadly coronavirus.It is complex to keep track of every individual and impossible to manage details of each person without using system engineering approach.The app is helping a lot in finding those who have been in close contact with COVID-19 patients. It has helped to handle the complex task of finding people exposed to Coronavirus.

Thus, the answer for the question is Yes, the Australian government has adopted a system engineering approach in its management of COVID-19.