2.2 System components and concepts

In abstract terms, a system consists of three main components and few communication links.
They are Input, Process and Output. Feedback is one communication link.








System boundary defines the scope of the system with respect to the environment it
operates. Simply, it defines the system by distinguishing it from everything else in the
environment.

Example 1: The Scope of a School System

We can identify goals, input, processing and output of a school system as follows:

System: School

Goal: Educate students

Input: Children, Teachers, Principal, Resources

Processing: Teaching and learning

Output: Educated students






A school (viewed as a system) illustrating the system boundary

Input: dirty car, water, cleaning ingredients, time, energy, skill,
knowledge

Processing mechanism: select the cleaning options: wash only/wash with wax/
wash with wax/ and hand dry

Feedback: your assessment of how clean the car is

Output: clean car

System types:

Considering various features, we can classify systems into different categories as follows:

• Simple or complex
• open or closed
• stable or dynamic
• adaptive or non-adaptive
• permanent or temporary