Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

A review of one of the fundamentals of systems engineering. We create and manage budgets of key technical performance measures.

System engineers work with technical budgets. Examples:

• size
• weight
• power
• attenuation
• memory use RAM
• memory use disk
• time to complete an operation

We are building a smartphone. We are told to keep total weight under X. We allocate so much weight to the case, so much to the screen, so much to the battery, etc.

As the design progresses, we monitor the weight estimates for the designs of the components of the system. The screen folks are a little over, but the battery folks are a little under. We juggle the budget allocations and watch closely.

The prototypes have been built. We are over budget, i.e., over total weight. Where can we cut. We go back and forth among and within the different component teams.

And at the same time we have a budget and allocations for the amount of power the different components draw. We have to test and monitor those allocations. The processor is drawing less power than allocated. That is okay sort of as the screen is drawing more power than allocated. We keep juggling the budgets of the different pieces.

Sound familiar?  Then you have been performing one basic function of systems engineering.

Never heard of this? Perhaps you should explore the field of systems engineering.