2
System View
2.1 System Architecting
System architecture classes are available from a number of universities (for example, there is the Advanced System Architecture graduate course since 2006 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,1 which is available online for download and is highly recommended as a theoretical foundation for anybody interested in this field). There is also excellent information available on the topic from the System Architecture Forum2 hosted jointly by the Embedded Systems Institute (ESI) and the Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT). The Forum brings together the academy and the industry with participation from Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Philips, Raytheon, Federal Aviation Administration, Daimler, FEI Company, Micronic Laser Systems AB, Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace and others. It meets twice a year (once in the United States and once in Europe) and discusses different topics released later as whitepapers, co-edited by Dr Gerrit Muller from ESI and Mr Eirik Hole from SIT, and available for download online at the Forum’s website. One of these whitepapers, ‘The State-of-Practice of Systems Architecting: Where Are We Heading?’, describes the value and the role of system architecture and system architects:
- Bridging between needs, constraints and available technologies, providing both technical and business points of view.
- Definition of system boundaries and their scope.
- Balancing multiple (sometimes conflicting, fuzzy or confusing) requirements and trade-offs ...
