Systems engineering and strategic project management

Systems engineering has been defined as engineering of the whole as distinct from engineering of the parts. Project management relies upon hierarchical decomposition of the overall project into smaller sub-elements so as to achieve manageable tasks. A Project Manager is often required to take on a quasi systems engineering role. Is there a fundamental contradiction between these two approaches and the roles that a Project Manager is expected to perform? This paper discusses this and the related topic of the relationship between systems engineering and strategic project management.