Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK)
The Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) was created by the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) project. The SEBoK came into being out of a recognition that the systems engineering discipline could benefit greatly by having a living authoritative guide closely related to those groups developing guidance on advancing the practice, education, research, work force development, professional certification, standards, etc.
At the beginning of 2013, BKCASE transitioned to a new governance model with shared stewardship between the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society (IEEE-CS). This governance structure was formalized in a memorandum of understanding between the three stewards that was finalized in spring of 2013. The stewards have reconfirmed their commitment to making the SEBoK available at no cost to all users, a key principle of BKCASE.
Welcome to SEBoK v. 1.3.1
On behalf of the BKCASE Editorial Board and the three SEBoK steward organizations, welcome to SEBoK v. 1.3.1.
The SEBoK provides a compendium of the key knowledge sources and references of systems engineering that are organized and explained to assist a wide variety of users. It is a living product, accepting community input continuously, with regular refreshes and updates.
This version was released 5 December 2014, and contains a number of minor updates to references and text. There is no significant change to SEBoK content for this update. For a full description of the changes made for v. 1.3.1, and release history and acknowledgements for all previous releases, go to Acknowledgements and Release History.
History, Motivation, and Value
The Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering Project (BKCASE) began in the fall of 2009. Its aim was to add to the professional practice of systems engineering by creating two closely related products:
- Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK)
- Graduate Reference Curriculum for Systems Engineering (GRCSE)
Please see http://www.bkcase.org for more information.
The SEBoK is a living authoritative guide that discusses what is included in the discipline, how the discipline should be structured to facilitate understanding, and what documents are the most important to the discipline. The curriculum guidance in GRCSE (Pyster and Olwell et al. 2012) makes reference to sections of the SEBoK to define its core knowledge; it also suggests broader program outcomes and objectives which reflect aspects of the professional practice of systems engineering as discussed across the SEBoK.
Through the end of 2012, BKCASE was led by Stevens Institute of Technology and the Naval Postgraduate School in coordination with several professional societies and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which provided generous funding. More than 75 authors and many other reviewers and supporters from dozens of companies, universities, and professional societies across 10 countries contributed many thousands of hours writing the SEBoK articles; their organizations provided significant other contributions in-kind. For additional information on the BKCASE authors, please see the Acknowledgements and Release History article.
The earliest value of the SEBoK has simply been the greater sense of community that has developed among the authors, which include many fellows of professional societies and other leaders in the field. For example, the relationship between Systems Science and Systems Engineering is now more clearly understood than in the past. This relationship is captured in Parts 2 and 3 of the SEBoK.
The greater value of the SEBoK, of course, comes from use by the community. As of the end of May 2014, SEBoK articles have been accessed more than 350,000 times by over 85,000 users and early usage reports are quite encouraging. We hope the SEBoK will regularly be used by thousands of systems engineers around the world as they undertake such activities as creating systems architectures, developing career paths for systems engineers, and deciding new curricula for systems engineering university programs.
About Systems Engineering
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the full life cycle of successful systems. Separate articles in Part 1 provide an overview of systems engineering, place it in historical context, and discuss its economic value.
Systems engineering has its roots in the fundamentals, principles, and models of systems thinking. It is applied through the application of systems engineering processes within a managed life cycle working with a number of other management, engineering, and specialist disciplines. While traditionally applied to product development, systems engineering can also be applied to service and enterprise systems. As systems engineering is a collaborative approach it relies on enabling competencies and structures at individual, team, and organizational levels.
The scope and organization of the SEBoK, described below, covers all these aspects of systems engineering. It also provides examples of systems engineering in practice.
About the SEBoK
The SEBoK is organized into 7 parts, with a Glossary of Terms and a list of Primary References.
- Part 1 discusses the SEBoK's scope and structure, including its hierarchy of parts, knowledge areas, and topics. Part 1 also includes a lengthy discussion of SEBoK Users and Uses, including a number of use cases which give advice on how different groups of users might navigate and use the SEBoK.
The other parts include:
- Part 2 Systems
- Part 3 Systems Engineering and Management
- Part 4 Applications of Systems Engineering
- Part 5 Enabling Systems Engineering
- Part 6 Related Disciplines
- Part 7 Systems Engineering Implementation Examples
As the SEBoK is a compendium, much of the content has restricted intellectual property rights. This copyright information is placed on each page, and must be respected. The SEBoK copyright is held by the Trustees of the Stevens Institute of Technology.
As a living document, at the bottom of each page, version identification can be found in a link called "About the SEBoK."
A PDF of the SEBoK v. 1.3.1 - as well as archive copies of versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 - may be downloaded at Download SEBoK PDF.
There is a link in the left margin under Quicklinks explaining how to Cite the SEBoK correctly.
About SEBoK Updates and the Sandbox
The SEBoK is sometimes compared to Wikipedia. The SEBoK is like Wikipedia in its most fundamental structure, as it is a collection of wiki articles built on MediaWiki technology. However, the SEBoK is unlike Wikipedia in that its content is carefully controlled. Anyone in the community can suggest changes be made to SEBoK articles, but the Editorial Board will review all recommendations before they are actually implemented in the SEBoK wiki.
New releases of the SEBoK are under the control of a Governing Board appointed by the stewards, who oversee the SEBoK Editor in Chief and Editorial Board. The stewards contribute resources to manage the SEBoK wiki, support new releases, and encourage SEBoK adoption. Volunteer authors from the worldwide SE community continue to propose and create new content and other volunteers review that new content.
Wikipedia is a much more open wiki, allowing virtually anyone to change any article, while reserving the right to undo changes that are offensive or otherwise violate Wikipedia's rules. Tight control over SEBoK content is a tradeoff. Such control ensures a stable baseline whose quality and integrity are assured by its editors. On the other hand, such control discourages some members of the community from contributing improvements to the SEBoK.
To satisfy both the need for a stable baseline and the desire for broader community involvement, the Editorial Board has implemented a collaborative space. The SEBoK Sandbox is a copy of the SEBoK that is separate from the baseline version where anyone in the community can edit articles, recommend new content, or provide comments on existing articles. It is important to note that while anyone in the community can gain access to the Sandbox, all submissions must still be approved by the Editorial Board before they will be folded into a new baseline version of the SEBoK. For more information on how this works, please visit the Sandbox. (Please recognize that the Sandbox associated with v. 1.3.1 will open in January 2015, allowing the community to propose changes for v. 1.4, which is expected to be released in spring 2015.)
You may also still contribute to the SEBoK by using the comments feature on the bottom of each page.
Using the SEBoK
Articles in the SEBoK can be found by using the Search field in the upper right corner of each page, as well as through the Quicklinks, Outline, and Navigation menus in the left margin of each page. Detailed instructions about the page layout and features are found in How to Read the SEBoK. Experienced systems engineering practitioners should review the Use Cases. Individuals who are new to systems engineering should start with Use Case 0: Systems Engineering Novices.
Contact the Editors
Comments can be left on any page by using the DISQUS feature. These are periodically reviewed. Comments can be flagged in DISQUS, which will result in a faster review by the editors. You may also review the current Editorial Board and contact editors directly about the materials in their areas of responsibility.
Email may be sent to bkcase.incose.ieeecs@gmail.com.
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SEBoK Discussion
Please provide your comments and feedback on the SEBoK below. You will need to log in to DISQUS using an existing account (e.g. Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or create a DISQUS account. Simply type your comment in the text field below and DISQUS will guide you through the login or registration steps. Feedback will be archived and used for future updates to the SEBoK. If you provided a comment that is no longer listed, that comment has been adjudicated. You can view adjudication for comments submitted prior to SEBoK v. 1.0 at SEBoK Review and Adjudication. Later comments are addressed and changes are summarized in the Letter from the Editor and Acknowledgements and Release History.
If you would like to provide edits on this article, recommend new content, or make comments on the SEBoK as a whole, please see the SEBoK Sandbox.
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