A Quantitative Metric of System Development Complexity

Each day, engineers cope with the challenges of building complex systems –challenges which threaten the project cost, schedule, and technical performance. Complex physical systems abound in nature – can engineers gain any insight on dealing with complexity from nature? Furthermore, how can these insights be applied? The discussion which follows suggests two fundamental lessons offered by nature in dealing with complexity: (1) system complexity is a function of component interaction and (2) complexity is a means which must be employed prudently. Subsequently, a complexity metric for the engineering application of these insights is presented.