This excellent book presents a broad view of system analysis, design, and development. It is mainly a practitioner’s textbook. It identifies the fundamental system analysis, design, and development practices that seem to be applicable to most organizations. The goal of the book, as stated in the introductory chapters, is to provide interdisciplinary grounding that links systems engineering and development to other bodies of engineering knowledge. In general, the author intends to stimulate the reader’s thought processes by introducing fresh approaches and ideas for advancing the state of the practice in systems engineering as a professional discipline.

The book consists of two parts: “System Analysis Concepts” and “System Design and Development Practices.” Part 1 is structured around five thematic concepts that are fundamental to understanding systems. It consists of 19 chapters that are grouped and presented in a sequence that supports the following five concepts: system entity, system architecture, system mission, system operations, and system capability. Each part is organized into a series of chapters that address concepts or practices, and include definitions of key terms and guiding principles. Each series within a part consists of chapters representing a specific topical discussion.

Part 2 builds on the system analysis concepts developed in Part 1, and presents a framework of practice-based strategies and activities for developing systems, products, and services. It consists of 34 chapters, organized into the following six practices: system development strategies; system specification; system design; decision support; system verification and validation; and system deployment, operations, and support.

Throughout the book, the reader can find several types of annotations (referrals, author’s notes, guideposts, examples, and reference identifiers) that facilitate readability. In each chapter, several examples are included that illustrate how a particular concept, method, or practice is applied to the development of real-world systems. Although references are limited, a bibliography for further reading is provided for those readers who want or need more details. This is because this book is a practitioner’s text, intended to equip the reader with the practical knowledge required to perform system analysis, design, and development.

I found this up-to-date book to be quite comprehensive, detailed, and well documented. The book covers a number of topics that are of interest to many systems engineers and software developers. In general, the book presents useful methods, principles, and practices, and provides many examples and exercises. So, although I believe that any reader will benefit from the material presented, I recommend this book to professional systems engineers seeking a better understanding of the subject.