Editor's Corner

Hi there. Welcome to the October 2020 release of the SEBoK. Version 2.3 is the 14th release of the SEBoK. That equates to the 14th edition of a textbook! And thank you to our readers – we had OVER 100,000 pageviews of the SEBoK in September 2020. That is remarkable. Thank you for your continued support of the SEBoK.

As we have mentioned in previous briefings, the “Top 10 Most Viewed Pages” shifts from month to month. I find it interesting to understand what knowledge is being sought after in the SEBoK. So, in that spirit, here are the Top 10 pages viewed for September 2020:

1. Types of Models
2. Types of Systems
3. Stakeholder Needs and Requirements
4. System Requirements
5. Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability
6. Systems of Systems (SoS)
7. Life Cycle Models
8. System Life Cycle Process Models: Vee
9. System Architecture
10. Systems Engineering Overview

So, what is new in this 14th release?

When you go to the top pages of each Part, you will find a new graphic. The old graphic needed to be retired so we could add Part 8 which first appeared in the last release. This graphic reflects the connectivity of the multiple parts of the SEBoK.

We moved to a newer version of the underlying Mediawiki platform that fixes bugs and improves performance, fixed typos in a number of articles, and made numerous other small housekeeping updates. More importantly, the major content changes in this version are:

• A new article on Cycles and the Cyclic Nature of Systems in Part 2/Systems Science/ provided by Gary Smith (Part 2 Lead Editor)
• You will find a new article on Portfolio Management in Part 6/SE and Project Management/ provided by Eric Speckling, Greg Parnell and Ed Pohl.
• Thanks to Holly Handley from ODU for updating the Human Systems Integration article in Part 6/SE and Specialty Engineering/.
• We have added five new videos to the Part 6/SE and Specialty Engineering/Security Engineering article. These videos were created by Keith Willet, with support from the INCOSE Systems Security Engineering Working Group.

Ongoing OPPORTUNITY: I first mentioned this last release. The Systems Security Engineering Working Group stepped up with providing five videos! We could use more.

We continue to look for ways to add some multimedia to the SEBoK. If you are an amateur videographers and hobbyists to produce a number of 3-5 minute videos on systems engineering specifically for the SEBoK. NO AGENDAS. NO PROMOTIONS. NO ADVERTISEMENTS. Or, you can simply record the presentation in PPT – that works also. If you are up to this challenge, please contact me at: rob@calimar.com. I look forward to your ideas.

Finally, we are always on the lookout for new articles to add. Some of the ideas we are working on for future releases include:

• What impacts will AI have on the practice of SE (including architecture and Int, Test, V & V)
• Cyber-physical Systems
• Sustainability
• Updated history of SE
• Diversity and SE
• Hardware Assurance and SE

Enjoy this latest release.