Book excerpt: Achieving a better solution or improving the performance of existing system design is an ongoing a process for which scientists, engineers, mathematicians and researchers have been striving for many years. Ever increasingly practical and robust methods have been developed, and every new generation of computers with their increased power and speed allows for the development and wider application of new types of solutions. This book defines the fundamentals, background and theoretical concepts of optimization principles in a comprehensive manner along with their potential applications and implementation strategies. It encompasses linear programming, multivariable methods for risk assessment, nonlinear methods, ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, multi-criterion and topology optimization, learning classifier, case studies on six sigma, performance measures and evaluation, multi-objective optimization problems, machine learning approaches, genetic algorithms and quality of service optimizations. The book will be very useful for wide spectrum of target readers including students and researchers in academia and industry.