Systems Engineering is not an exact science with fixed answers, nor is it a recipe for good quality. It supports design, which by nature depends on assumptions.... » 

Systems Engineering is not an exact science with fixed answers, nor is it a recipe for good quality. It supports design, which by nature depends on assumptions. More than anything it is a medium for communication management during large-scale development projects. Their success depends on human behaviour. Creating something as complex as the Airbus 380 or a tunnel between Spain and Africa requires the involvement of numerous people that are intelligent, cooperative, funny and generous, but also narrow-minded, jealous, uninterested, greedy, cynical or just stupid. Thousands may work together. Many of them will never meet.

First Read This provides a set of tools for keeping track of when and where you are in complex projects against the background of creative thinking and design practice. It is richly illustrated with examples of projects that were successful or failed, some of them rather miserably. The emphasis is on aerospace industry, being the most experienced in Systems Engineering, but many other fields are included, ranging from painkiller packaging to game shows. First Read This will help the reader to be both creative and careful. «