Considerations in Klystron Design for Microwave Relay Systems

7.4.3 Some Early History of Systems Engineering – 1950's in IRE Publications (Part 1): The Problem

“…Brockner (1951) discusses the overall problem of jitter in the performance of a radar and analyses the contributions to the jitter characteristic caused by each of a range of design related factors, demonstrating awareness of the compounding effect of the performance of parts of the system on the emergent characteristic of the whole system. Olthuis (1954) refers to a common systems engineering problem, the need to design the whole system before some components are made, so their characteristics cannot be empirically known and physical developmental test and evaluation cannot be performed.…”

A Historical Perspective on Development of Systems Engineering Discipline: A Review and Analysis

“…He amplified the idea of "interdisciplinary approach" by mentioning that a system project needs a wide range of expertise from disparate fields so that the system can be adequately assessed from different perspectives. Olthuis (1954) probably was one of the early advocates, who introduced the idea of holistic perspective of top down approach to design, emphasizing the need to draft the conceptual design of the entire system prior to explicit details or knowledge of the constituent elements. For instance, most of the communications missile subsystems of military systems were designed from a holistic perspective (Spanke 1954).…”