What is system environment?

Answer 1

appBoundary and Environment

What happens "outside" the system will affect it. In general, what happens outside the system, in

the system's environment, is of vital importance. Firstly the system can affect the environment, and

secondly the environment can affect the system. One of the reasons for the failure of many

technically brilliant engineering products is due to the lack of attention, by the designers, to the

environment. This is not only the environment in terms of the operating conditions but the wider

one that includes life cycle aspects, politics, fashion or just human beings.

A key aspect of Systems Thinking therefore is to

identify and establish what is inside the system

and what is outside in the environment. This

requires us to define the system boundary, an

interface which separates the system from its

environment as shown

the boundary separates the system of interest from its environment

the environment contains those elements and further systems that interact in some way

with the system of interest. Typically the environment of a system provides its inputs and

consumes its outputs

any element or system that does not interact with the system of interest lies outside the

environment in the universe

Deciding what is and what isn't part of a system is not easy. Consider

the situation given here - what is the system? The purpose of the

system is to turn thoughts into marks on paper. The context is the

office. Clearly the pen is part of the system. However, to turn

thoughts into marks on paper demands the human and the paper to

be part of the system. But, what about the desk? Without the desk the

paper will not be supported at the correct height. Therefore, it is

possible to argue the inclusion of the desk as part of the system. If we

accept the desk is it necessary to include the office floor? In which case what about the building, the

street, the town - and so on. The choice of what is and what is not the chosen system of interest

depends upon the observer and their reason for examining that system. For example if the reason

for examining the "turn thoughts into marks on paper" system is to select a pen, then the pen would

constitute the system of interest and the human and the paper would be in the environment of that

system. If, however, my intent is to design a new pen the system would include the user and the

paper and the desk etc would be in the environment

Answer 2

environment is the place of the processing has happened