Systems Engineers employ several types of hierarchies. Two of the more important hierarchies are class and containment.
Another hierarchy important to a systems engineer is a class hierarchy. A class hierarchy is an abstraction hierarchy. Things at the top are more abstract than things on the bottom.
For example; A truck is a class of systems used to haul material. A pickup truck is a special breed of truck that can haul about half a ton of material around. A Ford pickup truck has a particular style and performance. In a class hierarchy things at the top are more general while things at the bottom are more specialized.
Usually in a containment hierarchy the contained things are smaller than the container while in a class hierarchy the subclasses are often the same size.
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