Start here · Essential guide
Systems Thinking for Engineers
A practical introduction to seeing a design as interacting parts with boundaries, flows and feedback, and how that view changes the questions engineers ask.
Engineering Fundamentals
Systems Thinking
Seeing how parts, interfaces and feedback shape whole systems.
Block Diagrams and System Boundaries
How to decide what sits inside and outside a system, and how to show that decision in a simple block diagram that other people can read and challenge.
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis Basics
An introduction to listing the ways a design can fail, what each failure would cause, and a simple scoring approach for deciding which ones to address first.
Feedback Loops in Everyday Engineering
Reinforcing and balancing feedback loops explained with simple physical and organisational examples, and how to spot which kind is shaping a system's behaviour.
Interfaces and Why Most Problems Live There
How mismatched assumptions at the interfaces between parts and between teams cause failures, and practical ways to define interfaces clearly and check them.
Root Cause Analysis Techniques
Methods such as asking why repeatedly and cause-and-effect diagrams for finding underlying causes of problems, with notes on their strengths and pitfalls.
Thinking About the Whole Product Lifecycle
Why design choices should account for manufacture, use, maintenance and disposal, with practical questions to ask at each stage of a product's life.
Trade-Off Analysis and Decision Matrices
How to compare design options against weighted criteria using a decision matrix, with a hand-checked example and notes on sensitivity and common pitfalls.
Related topics
More in engineering fundamentals
Requirements and Specifications Capturing what a system must do and proving that it does. Units and Estimation Working safely with units, magnitudes and quick estimates. Math Refreshers Short refreshers on the maths engineers use, with checked examples. Components and Datasheets Reading datasheets and understanding common parts.