SEBoK Introduction

The purpose of the Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) is to provide a widely accepted, community-based, and regularly updated baseline of systems engineeringsystems engineering (SE) knowledge. SEBoK Part 1 contains an introduction to both the discipline of SE, and an introduction to and guide for the use of the SEBoK wiki.

Figure 1. SEBoK Part 1 in context (SEBoK Original). For more detail see Structure of the SEBoK

Part 1 also includes an introduction to some of the emerging aspects of systems engineering and a discussion of how these are transforming the discipline. As this knowledge matures, it will be migrated into the main body of the SEBoK.

Part 1 Knowledge Areas

Each part of the SEBoK is divided into knowledge areas (KAs), which are groupings of information with a related theme. Part 1 contains the following KAs:

Scope and Context of the SEBoK

While Part 1 introduces Systems Engineering knowledge areas, the remaining SEBoK content (Parts 2 – 6) focuses on domain-independent information—that which is universal to systems engineering regardless of the domain in which it is applied. Part 7 includes examples from real projects. These illustrate the concepts discussed elsewhere in the SEBoK, while detailing considerations relevant to domains such as aerospace, medicine, and transportation. Part 8 is intended to introduce some of the more significant emerging changes to systems engineering, both in general topics and emerging research.

SE in the context of engineered systems (ES) is the primary scope for the SEBoK, though general systems concepts are also discussed in Part 2. The SEBoK also covers considerations for the disciplines of software engineering and project management, which are strongly intertwined with the practice of SE (see Part 6).