Hi Chris!

The ideas of the holistic engineer embodies the point of view than an engineer needs to consider the whole system, the body of work that makes a product successful. The engineer participates in each phase of product development and is explicitly tasked with making a product succeed. Thus, the holistic approach involves product management/product cost, project management, rigorous communication, marketing, etc. As mjf34, the holistic approach involves qualifying the individual parts of a process.