Unlike most engineers, system engineers focus on the knowledge base needed to develop good systems in a cross-functional fashion rather than deeply on isolated topics. They are often said to be a mile wide and an inch deep in what they do know. System Synthesis: Product and Process Design provides insight into complex problems, focusing on the boundary conditions that exist between the knowledge domains of the specialized engineers populating a program and the product domains related to the product being developed by different teams on a program.

Based on the author’s 45 years of experience, the book examines the three activities that must take place in the development of any system between the completion of the requirements work and the verification of work. The author delineates the role of the system engineer in design, material procurement, and manufacturing, clearly describing how to do key tasks such as trade studies and interface integration. He broadens the discussion of the system development process to include the whole space between requirements and verification work, covering product design, procurement, and manufacturing from a system engineer's perspective.

Filling the void often found in system engineering books relative to design, procurement, and manufacturing, this book explores integration work as it relates to the three synthesis activities. It discusses integration, optimization, and coordination of program, product, and process design, provides coverage that partitions all interfaces into three subsets, and covers how to manage and technically integrate each. The book defines the primary benefit system engineers bring to the party as their ability to perform integration work, optimizing the design process to achieve goals that others cannot envision.