Editor's Corner
Please note that in order to provide review comments, you will use the DISQUS feature at the bottom of each article. You may login to DISQUS using existing accounts (e.g. Google, Yahoo, Twitter, or Facebook) or you may create a DISQUS account. Please look for the BKCASE posts under the discussion for each article, which provide specific guidance for reviewers.
Overview
BKCASE (pronounced "Bookcase") is the acronym for the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering project. The BKCASE team is developing two products, a Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) and a Graduate Reference Curriculum for Systems Engineering (GRCSE).
The current content of www.sebokwiki075.org represents version 0.75 of the SEBoK. To be clear:
- The SEBoK is not the compendium of all systems engineering knowledge; instead, in its final form it is intended to be the definitive guide to systems engineering (SE) knowledge. To this end, each article has been intentionally limited to about 2000 words (not including references or tables).
- The materials in version 0.75 should not be considered final.
- With 0.75, the authors have attempted to improve the consistency in terms of scope and level of detail for each article. However, where reviewers note inconsistency, comments would be extremely helpful.
- Only some of the articles were updated for 0.75 (see "Articles Updated for SEBoK 0.75") below. All other articles in the wiki are essentially the same as version 0.5 (with minor updates to reflect changes elsewhere).
Version 0.75 offers the public SE community a view into the state of the SEBoK as its authors evolve it towards the September 2012 Version 1.0 release. Most importantly, the authors are soliciting comments from the community to improve the content for version 1.0. The ideal outcome is that the SEBoK will be supported worldwide by the SE community as the authoritative BoK for the SE discipline.
State of the SEBoK
Summarizing the current state of the SEBoK at this point, the SEBoK team believes the following:
- The SEBoK is more mature than version 0.5. The quality of the writing, the choice of topics, the architecture of the SEBoK, and the completeness of the writing have been improved over version 0.5. The author team is quite proud of how far the SEBoK has come. Yet, the choice of version "0.75" does reflect the fact that much more work remains before the SEBoK will be fully ready for broad use and adoption.
- The architecture of the SEBoK into parts, knowledge areas, and topics is fundamentally correct and will persist in version 1.0, although there may be some minor adjustments.
- The choice of primary references - considered the most important readings in the field for a given topic - is immature. Reviewer feedback to help mature those choices is especially vital.
- Integration among articles is better than in version 0.5, but much remains to be done.
- Even though the articles in the wiki have been edited, there are still shortcomings in the writing. Nevertheless, version 0.75 captures extremely valuable information about the field, and provides a solid foundation for the final version.
- Moving to a wiki environment for the development and delivery of the SEBoK has been a huge step for the authors, but well worth it.
Reviewers will provide an external check on these beliefs.
Thank you
The opinions and constructive criticism the BKCASE author team receives from you, the reviewer, plays an extremely valuable and important role in the worldwide success and acceptance of SEBoK. If you would like to obtain further project information, please visit the project’s website at bkcase.org and if you have any questions during your review, please contact us at bkcase@stevens.edu.
The BKCASE author team sincerely thanks you for volunteering your time to help us with this important effort.
~The BKCASE Team
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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