There are many different kinds of engineered systems
such as manufacturing systems, space vehicles,
telecommunication networks, power grids, software
systems, nanoscale products, and transportation systems.
The design and operation of these engineered systems
can be extremely complex and complicated. Many of
these systems have conventionally been designed based
on trial-and-error processes and empiricism, since the
designers of these systems did not have a theoretical
framework for complexity. In the future, engineered
systems will become more complicated since the number
of the functional requirements (FRs) will continue to
increase requiring many layers of decomposition, unless
fundamental principles for reducing complexity can be
devised. Complexity of these systems will depend on our
ability to successfully synthesize and operate large
systems without making them complex. One of the goals
of the complexity field is to replace the empirical approach
with a more scientific approach.