Sommerville-Software-Engineering-10ed

578 Chapter 19 ■ Systems engineering
The author, who is an experienced systems engineer, draws on examples from a wide range of
systems and recognizes the importance of sociotechnical as well as technical issues. (H. Sillitto,
College Publications, 2014).
Website
PowerPoint slides for this chapter:
www.pearsonglobaleditions.com/Sommerville
Links to supporting videos:
http://software-engineering-book.com/videos/systems-engineering/
Exercises
19.1. Give two examples of government functions that are supported by complex sociotechnical systems
and explain why, in the foreseeable future, these functions cannot be completely automated.
19.2. Explain briefly why the involvement of a range of professional disciplines is essential in systems
engineering.
19.3. Complex sociotechnical systems lead to three important characteristics. What are they?
Explain each in brief.
19.4. What is a “wicked problem”? Explain why the development of a national medical records
system should be considered a “wicked problem.”
19.5. A multimedia virtual museum system offering virtual experiences of ancient Greece is to be
developed for a consortium of European museums. The system should provide users with
the facility to view 3-D models of ancient Greece through a standard web browser and
should also support an immersive virtual reality experience. Develop a conceptual design for
such a system, highlighting its key characteristics and essential high-level requirements.
19.6. Explain why you need to be flexible and adapt system requirements when procuring large
off-the-shelf software systems, such as ERP systems. Search the web for discussions of the
failures of such systems and explain, from a sociotechnical perspective, why these failures
occurred. A possible starting point is: http://blog.360cloudsolutions.com/blog/bid/94028/
Top-Six-ERP-Implementation-Failures
19.7. Why is system integration a particularly critical part of the systems development process?
Suggest three sociotechnical issues that may cause difficulties in the system integration process.
19.8. Why is system evolution inherently costly?