IAF0320

Initial course materials: http://www.tud.ttu.ee/web/Tarmo.Robal/IAF0320/

Everything else is in https://edu.pld.ttu.ee/. Note that your browser will complain about the certificate. According to the professor you can accept it (oops, server configuration issue).

Old materials (≤2014): http://pld.ttu.ee/IAF0320/ (as of 2016, the course hasn’t changed much).

Course outline in 2016

• Lecture #1: Introduction (30.08.16)
• Lecture #2: Course policies. Systems Engineering (13.09.16)
• Lecture #3: Systems Engineering Viewpoints. Stucture of Complex Systems. SoS. (20.09.16)
• Lecture #4: System Development Process. Life Cycle (27.09.16)
• Lecture #5: Systems Engineering Method. Stakeholders (04.10.16)
• Lecture #6: Concept development (11.10.16)
• Lecture #7: Aspects of PM. Decision analysis. Trade-Of analysis. (18.10.16)
• Lecture #8: Risk Management (25.10.16)
• Lecture #9: SysML Principles and Overview (01.11.16)
• Lecture #10: Testing. Requirements. Operations and support. (08.11.16)
• Lecture #11: Administrative slides (15.11.16)
• Lecture #12: User/Operator Interface. Human Factors (22.11.16)
• Lecture #13: TW presentation guidelines. Test 2. Exam dates. (29.11.16)
• Lecture #14: [Presentations]
• Lecture #15: [Presentations]
• Lecture #16: The Final Meeting (20.12.16)

Related papers

• SysML in systems engineering course (2014)
• Teaching modeling in SysML/UML and problems encountered (2014)
• Systems engineering course as a backbone of the computer engineering curricula (2013)

Exam

In 2016, exam consisted of three parts:

1. A, 20 points – Test, 20 statements, mark as True or False. Some questions can be argued both ways (e.g. “SysML is basically the same as UML”). Ask for clarifications of every statement that is ambiguous (half of them are), it won’t help much but who knows…
2. B, 40 points (≈6 questions) – Theoretical questions (e.g. what is systems engineering), at least one question about SysML notation (e.g. the meaning of different arrows).
3. C, 40 points (≈6 questions) – Practical task. You’re given a system, draw required diagrams (context, use case, …), write functional/non-functional requirements, etc. Basically, anything that was in your course project. This part is mostly unambiguous, you’ll be told exactly what to do and in what amount.

Be prepared that 2 hours is not enough to finish all of the tasks properly. It is much easier to do the exam the second time (you will know the format of the exam and you’ll understand the grading system), so if you’re taking the exam consider going to retake also (you’ll be given a different variant, but that’s OK. Hint-hint, they are not completely different). Also, ask to take a look at your first exam after it is graded, it will help you understand what he expects to see in the answers (e.g. there are questions like “Vee model, write everything you know”).

If you want to get a good grade for the exam, you want to focus on part B. No matter what you write there, you will not get maximum points for any of the questions. “OK you wrote all this but I expected to see this sentence somewhere”, “here I expected to have this bit clarified a bit more” and so on. In the end, you will of course agree that your answers could’ve been more detailed, but the fact is that this is probably the biggest exam you are going to write in your life, there is simply not enough time to write more stuff.

As of February 2016, the record for the exam is 75 points. The thing is, most people are smart enough not to go to the exam (but how do they know that the whole thing is such a nonsense?).

So if you are thinking about improving your grade from 4 or even 3… better don’t. In theory it is possible to get “4” for the exam, but you’ll have to try really hard. As for 5… well, good luck. Probably not going to happen unless the exam itself is changed.

See also

• IAF0530 – another course designed by Gert Jervan.
  

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