Preface
We wrote this book to capture a powerful idea. The idea of the “architecture of a system” is growing in recognition. It appears in diverse fields including the architecture of a power grid or the architecture of a mobile payment system. It connotes the DNA of the system, and the basis for competitive advantage. There are over 100,000 professionals with the title system architect today, and many more practicing the role of the architect under different titles.
Powerful ideas often have nebulous boundaries. We observed that many of our co-workers, clients, students had a shared recognition of system architecture issues, but used the term in very different scopes. The term is often used to differentiate between existing systems, as in “the architecture of these two mountain bikes is different.”
What exactly constitutes the architecture of a system is often a subject of great debate. In some fields, the term is used for a singular decision that differentiates two types of systems at a high level, as in “packet-switched architecture” vs. “circuit-switched architecture.” In other fields, the term is used to describe a whole implementation, save for some smaller details, as in “our software as a service architecture.”
Our goal was to capture the power of the idea of architecture, and to sharpen the boundaries. Much of the power of idea originates with the potential to trade among several architectures early, to look downstream and identify which constraints and opportunities will be central to value. It isn’t possible to trade among early ideas if the architecture encompasses all details, nor is it a meaningful exercise if important drivers of value are missing.
We wrote this book to build on the idea that the architect is a specialist, not a generalist, as proposed by Eberhardt Rechtin. Our intent is to showcase the analysis and methodologies of system architecture, and to develop the ‘science’ of system architecture. This text is less prescriptive in places than the discipline of product design, as the systems tackled are more complex. Where the product development community has a stronger focus on design, our focus centers more on emergence—the magic of functions coming together to produce a coherent whole.
We’ve imbued this book with our past experience. We’ve been fortunate to be involved in the early development of a number of complex systems in communications, transportation, mobile advertising, finance, robotics, and medical devices, ranging in complexity from farm equipment to the International Space Station.
Additionally, we have included case studies from the experience of other system architects, in disciplines ranging from hybrid cars to commercial aircraft. Our intent was that this book can only advance system architecture if it works from challenges faced by system architects today.
We wrote this book for two core audiences—professional architects and engineering students. System architecture as an idea grew out of practitioners’ wisdom and attempts to codify the challenges of developing new architecture. One core audience is senior professionals who are faced with architectural decisions. The field encompasses a variety of professionals in senior technical and managerial roles in technical industries—software, electronics, industrial goods, aerospace, automotive, and consumer goods.
This book is also focused on engineering students as a core audience. This text grew out of the graduate course we have taught at MIT for the past 15 years, where we’ve been fortunate to educate many leaders in the private sector and government. The lens of architecture helps us understand how a system operates today, but moreover, we believe that it is a necessary competency to learn in the management of technical organizations.
Acknowledgments
We’d like to thank the many people that made this book possible. First and foremost, our thanks to Bill Simmons, Vic Tang, Steve Imrich, Carlos Gorbea, and Peter Davison who contributed sections from their expertise, and who all provided comments on early drafts. We’re indebted to Norm Augustine, who in addition to contributing the foreword, shaped our thinking on the topic.
Our reviewers Chris Magee, Warren Seering, Eun Suk Suh, Carlos Morales, Michael Yukish, and Ernst Fricke helped us deliver crisp messages and helped identify where we had missed key ideas. We also received a number of anonymous reviews, whose feedback improved the book. Dov Dori has been an invaluable partner as the developer of the OPM.
Pat Hale supported the development of the curriculum at MIT, and provided feedback on an early draft. The 63 students of the MIT System Design and Management Class of 2011 reviewed each chapter in detail and provided mountains of suggestions. In particular, our thanks to Erik Garcia, Marwan Hussein, Allen Donnelly, Greg Wilmer, Matt Strother, David Petrucci, Suzanne Livingstone, Michael Livingstone, and Kevin Somerville. Ellen Finnie Duranceau at MIT Libraries helped us choose a publisher wisely.
Our graduate students over the years have helped shape the book’s content – much of their work appears here in one form or another. In addition to those mentioned above, we’d like to thank Morgan Dwyer, Marc Sanchez, Jonathan Battat, Ben Koo, Andreas Hein, and Ryan Boas.
The staff at Pearson made our book a reality—Holly Stark, Rose Kernan, Erin Ault, Scott Disanno, and Bram van Kempen. Thanks for all your hard work.
Finally, to our wives Ana, Tess, and Karen, thanks for your patience as we labored on weekends and during vacations, enduring the risk that this project become a “forever book.”
Cambridge, MAAbout the Authors
Edward F. Crawley
Edward Crawley is the President of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) in Moscow, Russia, and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at MIT. He received an S.B. and an S.M. in Aeronautics and Astronautics and an Sc.D. in aerospace structures, all from MIT.
From 1996 to 2003, he was head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. He has served as founding co-director of an international collaboration on the reform of engineering education and was the lead author of Rethinking Engineering Education: The CDIO Approach. From 2003 to 2006, he was the Executive Director of the Cambridge-MIT Institute, a joint venture with Cambridge University funded by the British government and industry; the Institute’s mission was to understand and generalize how universities can act effectively as engines of innovation and economic growth.
Dr. Crawley has founded a number of companies. ACX, a product development and manufacturing firm; BioScale, a company that develops biomolecular detectors; Dataxu, a company in Internet advertising placement; and Ekotrope, a company that supplies energy portfolio analysis to businesses. From 2003 to 2012, he served on the Board of Directors of Orbital Sciences Corporation (ORB).
Professor Crawley is a Fellow of the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and Royal Aeronautical Society (UK) and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science, the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Engineering (US).
Bruce G. Cameron
Bruce Cameron is the founder of Technology Strategy Partners (TSP), a consulting firm, and the Director of the System Architecture Lab at MIT. Dr. Cameron received his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, and graduate degrees from MIT.
As a Partner at TSP, Dr. Cameron consults on system architecture, product development, technology strategy, and investment evaluation. He has worked with more than 60 Fortune 500 firms in high tech, aerospace, transportation, and consumer goods, including BP, Dell, Nokia, Caterpillar, AMGEN, Verizon, and NASA.
Dr. Cameron teaches system architecture and technology strategy at the Sloan School of Management and in the School of Engineering at MIT. Previously at MIT, Dr. Cameron ran the MIT Commonality Study, which comprised over 30 firms spanning 8 years.
Previously, Dr. Cameron worked in high tech and banking, where he built advanced analytics for managing complex development programs. Earlier in his career, he was a system engineer at MDA Space Systems, and has built hardware currently in orbit. He is a past board member of the University of Toronto.
Daniel Selva
Daniel Selva is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell. He has degrees in electrical engineering and aeronautical engineering from Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Supaero, and MIT.
Professor Selva’s research focuses on applications of system architecture, knowledge engineering, and machine learning tools to early design activities. His work has been applied to the NASA Earth Science Decadal Survey, the Iridium GeoScan Program, and the NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), where he developed architectural analysis in support of system architects and executives. He is the recipient of Best Paper and Hottest Article awards.
Between 2004 and 2008, he worked for Arianespace in Kourou, French Guiana, as a member of the Ariane 5 Launch team, specializing in the On Board Data Handling, and Guidance, Navigation and Control. He has previously worked for Cambrian Innovation in the development of novel bioelectromechanical systems for use on orbit, and at Hewlett Packard on the monitoring of banking networks. He is a member of the Board of Advisors for NuOrion Partners, a wealth management firm.