The Role of Systems Engineering in the Development of Information Systems

In this article, the inter-relationship between information systems (IS), systems engineering (SE), and information system development (ISD) is discussed from past, present, and future perspectives. While SE is relatively a well-established discipline based upon an interdisciplinary approach to enable the realization of successful systems, ISD has evolved to a variant of SE applied mainly for the development of IS. Given the growth in complexity and cost and schedule over-runs associated with software centric systems, well-established methodologies are needed for the development of good IS. Similarities and differences of methodology as well as their evolution and perspectives are also presented herein. We found a positive trend in the evolution of research methodology in SE and its use in IS towards a system's approach as a holistic methodology.