system - Types of systems, Systems in information and computer science, Systems in engineering

Any biological, mechanical, or organizational entity which carries out a specific function, receiving inputs from its surroundings and sending outputs to its surroundings. It follows that any system is a part of a wider system, which in turn is part of a wider system, and so on. In computing, the word is used to refer to a part of the information processing of an organization which might be appropriate for implementation by a computer, such as the handling of a payroll or the handling of bills and invoices. Today, systems analysts are just as concerned about the human organizational systems as the clerical processing systems.

Any object which has no relationship with any other element of the system, is not a component of that system.

Every division or aggregation of real objects/entities into systems is arbitrary, therefore it is a subjective abstract concept.

The scientific research field which is engaged in the transdisciplinary study of universal system-based properties of the World is the General System Theory/Systems science and recently Systemics, it investigates the abstract properties of the matter and mind, their organization, searching concepts and principles which are independent on the specific domain, independent of their substance, type, or spatial or temporal scales of existence. They depend on the universal properties of systems of systems and are the domain of the practical interest and continuous research.

Types of systems

Systems in information and computer science

In computer science and information science, system could also be a method or an algorithm. Again, an example will illustrate: There are systems of counting, as with Roman numerals, and various systems for filing papers, or catalogues, and various library systems, of which the Dewey Decimal System is an example.

System can also be used referring to a framework, be it software or hardware, designed to allow software programs to run, see platform.

Systems in engineering

In engineering, concept system is usually well defined. Systems engineering is also a generalized theoretical branch of the different engineering approaches and paradigms.

The design of complex engineering systems requires metamodeling frameworks.

Systems in social and cognitive sciences and management research

Social and cognitive sciences recognize systems in human person models and in human societies.

In management science,operations research and organizational development (OD), human organizations are viewed as systems (conceptual systems) of interacting components such as sub-systems or system aggregates, which are carriers of numerous complex processes and organizational structures.

Systems thinking is a style of thinking/reasoning and problem solving.

Organizational theorists such as Margaret Wheatley have also described the workings of organizational systems in new contexts metaphoric contexts, such as quantum physics, chaos theory, and the self-organization of systems.

In socio-cognitive engineering the concept system is generalized to, so called, intelligence-based systems, what enables to analyze heterogeneous human-organization-technology aggregates and recognize their pathological properties such as organization: vulnerability, crisis and changes.