The Art of Systems Architecting

by Mark W. Maier, Eberhardt Rechtin

Overview

If engineering is the art and science of technical problem solving, systems architecting happens when you don’t yet know what the problem is. The third edition of a highly respected bestseller, The Art of Systems Architecting provides in-depth coverage of the least understood part of systems design: moving from a vague concept and limited resources to a satisfactory and feasible system concept and an executable program. The book provides a practical, heuristic approach to the "art" of systems architecting. It provides methods for embracing, and then taming, the growing complexity of modern systems.

New in the Third Edition:

• Five major case studies illustrating successful and unsuccessful practices



• Information on architecture frameworks as standards for architecture descriptions



• New methods for integrating business strategy and architecture and the role of architecture as the technical embodiment of strategy



• Integration of process guidance for organizing and managing architecture projects



• Updates to the rapidly changing fields of software and systems-of-systems architecture



• Organization of heuristics around a simple and practical process model

A Practical Heuristic Approach to the Art of Systems Architecting

Extensively rewritten to reflect the latest developments, the text explains how to create a system from scratch, presenting invention/design rules together with clear explanations of how to use them. The author supplies practical guidelines for avoiding common systematic failures while implementing new mandates. He uses a heuristics-based approach that provides an organized attack on very ill-structured engineering problems. Examining architecture as more than a set of diagrams and documents, but as a set of decisions that either drive a system to success or doom it to failure, the book provide methods for integrating business strategy with technical architectural decision making.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032099521
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	06/30/2021
Series:	Systems Engineering
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	466
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mark W. Maier

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION. Extending the Architecting Paradigm. Heuristics as Tools. NEW DOMAINS, NEW INSIGHTS. Case Study: DC-3. Builder-Architected Systems. Case Study: Mass and Lean Production. Manufacturing Systems. Case Study: Intelligent Transportation Systems. Social Systems. Case Study: Hierarchical to Layered Systems. Software and Information Technology Systems. Case Study: The Global Positioning System. Collaborative Systems. MODELS AND MODELING. Representation Models and Systems Architecting. Design Progression in Systems Architecting. Integrated Modeling Methodologies. Architecture Frameworks. THE SYSTEMS ARCHITECTING PROFESSION. Architecting in Business and Government. The Political Process and Systems Architecting. The Professionalization of Systems Architecting. Appendices: Heuristics for Systems-Level Architecting. Reference Texts Suggested for Institutional Libraries. Glossary.

Editorial Reviews

Richter (engineering, U. of Southern California) seems to have created the abomination of a verb, and uses it to mean creating and building systems too complex to be treated by engineering analysis alone. He and Maier, an engineer with an aerospace company, restate and extend his paradigm that the same approaches and concerns have been guiding architects from the first human societies through the computer, networking, and other complex systems at the end of the 20th century. They look at such aspects as manufacturing and social systems, software and information technology, models and modeling, and the profession itself. They include a glossary without pronunciation guides. The first edition appeared in 1996. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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