Guidance for Systems Engineers

Entry-level systems engineers will use the SEBoK as a quick, comprehensive reference for systems engineering (SE) topics while they are learning to be systems engineers. The SEBoK will provide a single source with leading references for definition of terms and explanations of basic concepts and principles associated with systems engineering. More experienced systems engineers will use the SEBoK as a pointer to articles and textbooks that provide more in-depth coverage of topics required to accomplish a work activity. The SEBoK authors have taken the time to identify many valuable assets and sources of knowledge. This will allow practicing systems engineers to reliably gain knowledge more quickly which will lead to less time spent searching for and learning new information and more time getting direct work done.

Additionally, the SEBoK will provide a common set of terms, definitions and concepts to establish a consistent framework for a team of practicing engineers. The framework helps to bridge across the legacy knowledge of the practicing engineers to enhance communication, which is often a major obstacle for new teams. Please see Enabling Teams to Perform Systems Engineering for more information.

Use of Topics

The SEBoK topics provide great value to practicing systems engineers. These engineers have limited time to research topics and find relevant information. Practicing engineers often have limited access to educational resources or to research expertise. The SEBoK provides a compendium of and references to some of the best information on SE, based on research, proven practices, and emerging knowledge. The SEBoK helps to provide a means of connecting with educators and researchers through the topics and references provided. The primary references will help practicing engineers find reliable, high-quality information more quickly than they would if they had only the internet as a means of searching, because the SEBoK sources have been reviewed and vetted by a team of experts.

Having the SEBoK organized by articles that are generally less than 2000 words will help practicing engineers to quickly get an overview of the topics. The primary references will provide the greater detail that is most relevant to the topic. In cases where the practicing engineer needs additional detail or breadth, the additional references can be consulted.

It is expected that the practicing systems engineer will most often access the SEBoK using a search function with some key words that indicate the topics they are interested in learning. The next most likely access methods would be 1) to check the SEBoK table of contents or an index to find the topics of interest and 2) through the search results of an Internet search engine based on a specific topical search.

Occasionally, practicing engineers who are new to systems engineering and intent on fully learning the subject will read the SEBoK in sequence. This may also be true for practicing engineers in a training course run by their employer. To facilitate in-sequence use, the SEBoK has navigation links in each article, allowing easy access to the previous and next articles in the table of contents, as well as a link to the parent article in the hierarchy.

Implementation Examples

Practicing systems engineers will find the examples useful when these examples are aligned with the domain in which the systems engineer is working, though some more general examples will occasionally be useful. Because the SEBoK focuses on the discipline of systems engineering and has minimal coverage of the numerous domains where systems engineering can be applied, the practicing systems engineer will get limited understanding of domain-specific concerns from the discussion in Parts 2 through 6. However, SE examples within a particular domain are provided in Part 7. Though obviously all relevant domains are not covered, these examples may be useful for understanding how an application domain may impact SE activities. For SEBoK version 1.0, the authors plan to add additional examples.

Model-Based Systems Engineering Practitioners

Practicing Systems Engineers will use the SEBoK, and in particular its knowledge area on Representing Systems with Models, to practice model-based systems engineering (MBSE) in order to create models of systems in order to support the various system lifecycle activities, including their requirements, high-level architecture, detailed design, testing, usage, maintenance, and disposal.

Faculty members will use the SEBoK to support curriculum development and assessment, and ensure accuracy and completeness of the MBSE part of the curriculum. They will be able to define the modeling methodologies and languages they wish to include in their curriculum, such as System Modeling Language (SysML) and Object-Process Methodology (OPM).

SE researchers will be able to adopt an MBSE approach and base their SE research on models in order to make their research topics more formal and rigorous.

Summary

The SEBoK will be viewed by practicing engineers as an authoritative knowledge resource that can be accessed quickly to gain essential high level information. It will be viewed as a quick method for identifying the best references for more in depth study and research into systems engineering topics when an individual’s current level of understanding is not enough to get the job done.

The SEBoK will occasionally be used in training courses and as a resource for teaching practicing engineers.