Systems design explained

The basic study of system design is the understanding of component parts and their subsequent interaction with one another.^[1]

Systems design has appeared in a variety of fields, including sustainability,^[2] computer/software architecture,^[3] and sociology.^[4]

Product Development

If the broader topic of product development "blends the perspective of marketing, design, and manufacturing into a single approach to product development,"^[5] then design is the act of taking the marketing information and creating the design of the product to be manufactured.

Thus in product development, systems design involves the process of defining and developing systems, such as interfaces and data, for an electronic control system to satisfy specified requirements. Systems design could be seen as the application of systems theory to product development. There is some overlap with the disciplines of systems analysis, systems architecture and systems engineering.

Physical design

The physical design relates to the actual input and output processes of the system. This is explained in terms of how data is input into a system, how it is verified/authenticated, how it is processed, and how it is displayed.In physical design, the following requirements about the system are decided.

1. Input requirement,
2. Output requirements,
3. Storage requirements,
4. Processing requirements,
5. System control and backup or recovery.^[6]

Put another way, the physical portion of system design can generally be broken down into three sub-tasks:

1. User Interface Design
2. Data Design
3. Process Design

Web System design

Online websites, such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon and Netflix are used by millions of users worldwide. A scalable, highly available system must be designed to accommodate an increasing number of users. Here are the things to consider in designing the system:

1. Functional and non functional requirements
2. Capacity estimation
3. Database to use, Relational or NoSQL
   1. Vertical scaling, Horizontal scaling, Shard Load Balancing
4. Primary-secondary Replication
5. Cache and CDN
6. Stateless and Stateful servers
7. Datacenter georouting
8. Message Queue, Publish-Subscribe Architecture
9. Performance Metrics Monitoring and Logging
10. Build, test, configure deploy automation
11. Finding single point of failure
12. API Rate Limiting
13. Service Level Agreement

See also

• Arcadia (engineering)
• Architectural pattern (computer science)
• Configuration design
• Electronic design automation (EDA)
• Electronic system-level (ESL)
• Embedded system
• Graphical system design
• Hypersystems
• Modular design
• Morphological analysis (problem-solving)
• Systems analysis and design
• SCSD (School Construction Systems Development) project
• System information modelling
• System development life cycle (SDLC)
• System engineering
• System thinking
• TRIZ

Further reading

• Book: Bentley, Lonnie D. . Lonnie D. Bentley . System analysis and design methods . Dittman . Kevin C. . Kevin C. Dittman . Whitten . Jeffrey L. . Jeffrey L. Whitten . 2004 . 1986.
• Book: Churchman, C. West . C. West Churchman . The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic Concepts of Systems and Organization . Basic Books . 1971 . 0-465-01608-1 . New York.
• Book: Gosling, William . William Gosling (engineer) . The design of engineering systems . Wiley . 1962 . New York . registration.
• Book: Hawryszkiewycz, Igor T. . Introduction to system analysis and design . Prentice Hall PTR . 1994.
• Book: Levin, Mark S. . Modular system design and evaluation . Springer . 2015.
• Book: Maier, Mark W. . The Art of System Architecting . Rechtin . Eberhardt . CRC Press . 2000 . Second . Boca Raton.
  • Book: Whitten, Jeffrey L. . Whitten, Jeffrey L. . Fundamentals of system analysis and design methods . Bentley . Lonnie D. . Lonnie D. Bentley . Dittman . Kevin C. . Kevin C. Dittman . 2004.

External links

• Interactive System Design. Course by Chris Johnson, 1993
• https://systemdesign.htw-berlin.de/produkte-prozesse/ Course by Prof. Birgit Weller, 2020

Notes and References

1. Book: Papanek, Victor J. . Victor Papanek . Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change . 1984 . Academy Chicago . 0897331532 . 2nd . Chicago . 276 . 12343986 . 1972.
2. Blizzard . Jacqualyn . Klotz . Leidy . 2012 . A framework for sustainable whole systems design . R Design Studies . 33 . 5 . 456–479 . 10.1016/j.destud.2012.03.001.
3. Lukosh . Heidi . Bekebrede . Geertje . Kurapati . Shalini . Lukosch . Stephan . 2018 . A Scientific Foundation of Simulation Games for the Analysis and Design of Complex Systems . Simulation & Gaming . 49 . 3 . 279–314 . 10.1177/1046878118768858 . 6187265 . 30369775.
4. Werner . Ulrich . September 1987 . Critical heuristics of social systems design . European Journal of Operational Research . 31 . 3 . 276-283 . 10.1016/0377-2217(87)90036-1.
5. Book: Ulrich, Karl T. . Product Design and Development . Eppinger . Steven D. . Steven D. Eppinger . Irwin McGraw-Hill . 2000 . Second . Boston.
6. Book: Arden, Trevor . Information technology applications . 1991 . Pitman . 978-0-273-03470-4 . London.