  Ground-based solar polarimetry has made great progress over the last decade.
Nevertheless, polarimetry is still an afterthought in most telescope and
instrument designs, and most polarimeters are designed based on experience and
rules of thumb rather than using more formal systems engineering approaches as
is common in standard optical design efforts. Here we present the first steps
in creating a set of systems engineering approaches to the design of
polarimeters that makes sure that the final telescope-instrument-polarimeter
system is more than the sum of its parts.
