Systems Engineering
Systems Engineering is being an architect for technical systems, turning the customer's requirements into an installed system that satisfies those requirements. As such, it includes all aspects of a system from the budget and schedule, the personnel available for operation and maintenance, the applicable laws, regulations and licenses, the location and space available, the primary power source and all environmental factors. Then, and only then, it includes the strategies and options of the technical design itself.

Reverse Engineering
Reverse Engineering is the analysis of an existing system or product to discover and document its characteristics and specifications. Several times I have been consulted to determine why a system did not work as expected. In each case the answer was that the system worked exactly as designed- that is, it worked poorly because the design was faulty.

"Coffee Table Engineering"
A group of people are sitting around a table (or standing at the water cooler) and someone says, "You know, we ought to try...". Everyone agrees it is a great idea and run off to implement the suggestion. Eventually the suggestion is implemented --- and fails. I hate when that happens. Usually the failure is caused by not considering such things as (1) the legal permission to do something, or (2) the power or space required, or (3) environmental requirements, or (4) heat dissipation, or (5) the talent required to operate the system. Other causes may come to mind.

Fail Safe
The easy part of systems engineering is designing a system to perform its intended function under its specified operating environment and conditions. That just takes time and effort. Even more time and effort are required to make the system 'idiot proof' or 'failure safe'. What happens if someone pushes the wrong button, or two wrong buttons, or enters an invalid value? What happens when the primary power glitches? The answer to these questions is that a well designed system will know how to cope with these events and will either alert the operator or function as though the event never happened.

Low Bidding
Competition can be a good thing, but it must be understood realistically in order to be a good thing. The object is to get a good system for a fair price. Too often we end up with a poor system for that same fair price. Often the price difference between the technical leader and a copy-cat system is about 10%. This is because the leader charges what he has to in order to make a fair profit while the copy-cat makes a much cheaper system and runs the price up to about 10% below the leader to look inexpensive and win the low bid, expecting even more profit to come from change orders. The best way I know to keep costs down is for the customer to understand what is wanted and avoid unnecessary requirements. The systems engineer should provide for future growth up front and utilize high-quality and rugged components.