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Title: Systems Engineering and Analysis (4th Edition) (Prentice-Hall International Series in Industrial and Systems)
ISBN: 0131869779
Author:
Benjamin S. Blanchard
Wolter J. Fabrycky
Publicate Date: 2005-05-15
Publish: 2005-05-15
List Price: $145.00
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $76.45
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $76.45
Amazon Merchant Price: $100.48
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| Customer Review: |
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1: mixed bag
we used this book for undergrad se classes i taught.
unfortunately there are not a lot of alternatives.
(we *also* used buede for another class and mandel for project management etc).
the authors know their stuff, unfortunately some of it got lost in translation. perhaps because a lot of the material got translated from govt publications.
this is more like a handbook than a textbook. for the handbook user just get sage's tome. for a textbook -- well this is least worst for an intro to SE. for supporting areas other books are better.
what is good is excellent. but what is bad is frustrating.
they tried to cover way too much in one book and got confused with SE and OR and management techniques and quality and a whole bunch of other stuff that is really tangential to SE.
and the material gets covered at uneven levels of detail so it is not a good handbook nor a good textbook just a good pile of notes on a lot of se related stuff.
previous editions had many errors and did not come with any answers to the problems, many of which were confusing as stated.
the first part of the book really introduces SE. The rest of the book is for review by someone who has specialised in the areas they cover.
The book would be much better if they concentrated on SE and left the other stuff to other books. i have not checked with the publisher for current availability, but previously there was no instructors guide and no answers to the questions. that is a big drawback for classroom use.
this would be best for an experienced person who wanted to review SE or get an introduction to a specialised topic relating to SE.
the dsmc/dau se handbook is (was?) free on the internet from various govt sites and does a great job of introducing SE. you should look at that resource before buying this book. indeed, unless you are using it in a class you might just want to borrow this from a library instead of buying it.
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2: Too much information crammed in one single book
I agree with Keith here on the irritant QUOTE "constant referencing of graphs and figures, as well as notations from previous chapters, it really inhibits my learing when I have to keep flipping back and forth to follow a train of thought. There are also a few chunks of the book that are very, very hard to follow the logical train of thought and require meticulious attention to the detail, and often require rereading. UNQUOTE.
My nit-picks:
The book fails to explain the logic behind some of the concepts. An example follows: The author mentions the Mean Service Time Under Control Formula on Page 318(Section 10.6.4) Unfortunately, the text doesn't seem to explain why the procedure is used that way in the book.
There are some typos in the book, and some unknowns:
Page 319: reference to "equation 10.38" must read as "equation 10.40". Similarly, reference to "equation 10.41" must read as "equation 10.43".
Additionally, the sections on PERT/CPM as well as Statistical Process Control seem to get into a lot of advanced detail, skipping important concepts.
You may want to look at other resources for Optimization Theory Chapters as it is not covered in detail in this book.(as required by the rigors of the course I'm taking!)
In a nutshell- the book can be greatly improved by expanding on the "WHYs" behind some of the concepts mentioned above, for eg section 10.6.4
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3: High-level view
Very much the 30,000 foot view of systems engineering. I picked this book up because I saw it referred to all over the place, and assumed that it was reasonably definitive. Sadly, it is not. What the book does do is give the reader a reasonably good high-level overview of systems engineering in general, and of some of the techniques involved in estimating the "ilities" of a given system design. However, the level of detail on any one subject area is very light, and the bias of the book is very much toward DoD-style systems engineering. A good book for systems engineering managers. System designers should also seek out Wymore's "Model-Based Systems Engineering" for a thorough understanding of requirements and design.
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4: Great Introduction to Systems Engineering
I took a course in school that used this book and I really enjoyed the book and what it taught me about systems engineering. The authors do a great job of walking the student through the systems engineering process, and ginving a general overview of the steps. The later chapters expand upon this overview to give the detail needed to actually carry out the process. The last part of the book expands upon the "-ilities" of systems engineering which are the authors partiucalr areas of interest. I think anyone interested in systems engineering should get this book, its a great resource. A few things I didn't like was the constant referencing of graphs and figures from previous chapters, it really inhibits my learing when I have to keep flipping back and forth to follow a train of thought. There are also a few chunks of the book that are very, very hard to follow the logical train of thought and require meticulious attention to the detail, and often require rereading. I'm hoping the authors with put out an updated and expanded edition soon, that compensates for these shortfalls.
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5: excellent system engineering book!
I'm currently teaching graduate students and used this as a text book last semester. I suppose students have enjoyed this book very much. I appreciate the author and ...'s excellent work as well.
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