Toward synergistic engineering of computer systems

Traditional engineering practice, which has evolved through experience, is to develop a system's architecture, hardware, and software as separate entities. But this approach has led to cost and schedule overruns, as well as to systems that do not perform as intended. It is increasingly important that a system's hardware, software, interfaces, and related functions be developed synergistically with an understanding that every system element will influence other elements. It is this need for a systematic, integrated engineering approach that caused the system to accept the challenge of developing a computer department.