4.2 System Classifications
One of the first steps that the practitioner must perform in the system definition phase is to classify the
system. Systems can be classified with respect to two different dimensions. First, a system may be discrete,
continuous, or combined. Second, a system is either terminating or nonterminating. These classifications
are a significant issue; they affect how the practitioner will conduct the modeling and analysis for the
project (Law and Kelton, 2000).