I suggest the following textbook published by John Wiley (New York) as part of their System Engineering and Management Series:
System Analysis, Design, and Development: Concepts, Principles, and Practices (www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471393339.html[/URL])
For the record ... I am the author of the textbook.
SE textbooks often focus on System Acquisition and Management - e.g., the "philosophy of SE". People read texts or complete university classes, return to their organizations, and still do not understand HOW TO capture and characterize a user’s vision, translate the user’s operational needs into meaningful specifications and designs, and deliver a system, product, or service that meets the user's needs. They emerge with a few concepts and a vocabulary of buzzwords that impress people ... but are often interchanged and inappropriately used - e.g., verification and validation (V&V).
This text was written to accommodate both undergraduate and graduate level instruction as well as corporate engineering training programs. Its purpose is to enable students and readers to actually understand HOW TO perform System Engineering rather than philosophize about it - e.g., translate a user's need(s) into the physical realization of the system, product, or service. The text provides new insights to SE concepts, principles, and practices. Yet, avoids rehashing the same material that has been in existence over several decades.
A key feature of this text is that it has topic-based chapters. Personnel in organizations today do not have hours of time to unravel the details of an SE topic scattered across multiple chapters. Most people want a desk reference that conveniently isolates topics that can be read and understood in less than 30 - 45 minutes. This was one of the key objectives in writing this text.
Textbooks often include "principles" in the title as a marketing ploy. Then, fail to deliver on the title-based promise to help the reader easily identify key principles associated with a topical chapter. This text includes key guiding principles, by chapter reference identifier, at the end of each chapter. Over 100 in total.
As a final note, the text won the Paris-based International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Book of the Year Award, their most prestigious of four awards. Whereas the IAA has traditionally selected space flight-centric publications over the past 20 years, this text was written for application to any business domain system, product, or service.
You can view the textbook’s outline and description as well as links to reviewer comments at: [PLAIN]www.wassonstrategics.com/textbook.php[/URL].
I hope this summary provides beneficial information to assist in answering your question.
Best Regards