Systems Engineering

7. System Modeling

The next major step is to model the system and alternate approaches to the design. Various methods are used to model the design and configuration of the system elements. Traditional ones include two dimensional diagrams (blueprints) and physical scale models. These methods can help visualize a system, but are not easy to modify, derive parameters, or perform simulations. The trend is towards integrated software modeling, where software tools model and simulate multiple aspects of the system, or communicate from one tool to another. In software tools, a system is represented as data and mathematical relationships, which makes it much easier to change, optimize, and evaluate.