Guidance for Engineers

Part 1 of the SEBoK, provides an orientation and overview of systems engineering for other kinds of engineers who have an interest in systems engineering. The extensive lists of references in Part 1 and throughout the SEBoK provide a basis for further readings on selected topics in systems engineering.

Part 7 of the SEBoK, provides implementation examples that illustrate the application of systems engineering practices, principles, and concepts in real settings. Some of these may be of direct applicability for engineers who have backgrounds and experiences in those kinds of systems; all of the examples provide concrete examples of the role of systems engineering in various kinds of projects and programs.

Links to glossary terms are embedded throughout the SEBoK; in the upcoming version 1.0 of the SEBoK, each term will include a discussion of its relevance to systems engineering, which will provide further insights into systems engineering for other engineers.

Use of Topics

Other kinds of engineers will find the following knowledge areas of the SEBoK to be relevant to their interests and needs:

Part 2 of the SEBoK provides a guide to those areas of systems knowledge particularly relevant to systems engineering. This provides a foundation for the subsequent elements of the theory and practice of systems engineering in Parts 3, 4 and 5.

In Part 3 of the SEBoK, other engineers will find most of the subjects to be of interest. In particular, the knowledge areas of Life Cycle Models, System Definition, System Realization, and System Deployment and Use will be of value. Although many engineers may be tempted to skip over Systems Engineering Management, most of the topics are relevant for other engineers (e.g., risk management, measurement, configuration management, and quality management).

Reading Part 4 (product, service, enterprise, and systems of systems engineering) will provide other kinds of engineers with an overview of the distinctions among SE activities for these different kinds of engineered systems. Other engineers involved in development or modification of one of these types of systems will benefit from reading the content, primary references, and glossary terms for for the engineering of that type of system.

Other kinds of engineers may be tempted to bypass the knowledge areas in Part 5 of the SEBoK. However, other engineers will benefit from understanding how they and systems engineers fit into the larger picture of enabling individuals and teams to perform systems engineering activities, and how systems engineers fit into the larger picture of systems engineering organizational strategies. In particular, the topic of Organizing Teams to Perform Systems Engineering will be of interest.

Software engineers would benefit from reading the Systems Engineering and Software Engineering knowledge area. Individuals involved in one of the specialty disciplines will benefit from reading the Systems Engineering and Specialty Engineering knowledge area. See the example Software Engineering Vignette.

The Part 6 knowledge area Systems Engineering and Project Management will be of interest to most other kinds of engineers.

Vignette: Software Engineer

Jose Wilks is an entrepreneurial software engineer wanting to learn more about systems engineering principles applied to embedded systems for advanced document identification and verification. He wants to implement best practices in developing secure systems for real-time image processing and forensic verification of documents. His company's technology runs on small tablet computers for portable and fixed locations. It provides a rapid, secure and cost effective solution for verifying the authenticity of identity, travel and financial documents.

He is already quite familiar with computer hardware engineering, interfaces at the lowest level with software, and their tradeoffs in embedded devices. His company has experience developing research prototypes, but without the stringent security requirements for actual field usage linked to government identification databases. His sales have only been individual experimental units, which have fared well in testing, but he wants to expand into markets for government agencies, law enforcement departments and the private sector. New challenges abound.

With 20 years of technical and management experience on software projects he already is familiar with concepts in the SWEBoK. So he starts skimming SEBoK 1.0 Introduction and the Scope and Context of the SEBoK to get an overview of the SEBoK contents. Most of the parts have some nuggets of new knowledge to help his enterprise operate at an expanded level, as described below.

Part 3: SE and Management has some new concepts that may work. Reading Life Cycle Models he identifies some extra system-level V&V gates to incorporate in their processes with references for implementation details. He is enlightened about system-level V&V on top of software V&V, and pointers to testing and regulation standards that will be used by various government entities before being approved for use. These processes will ensure conformity to the regulations on top of standard software testing.

Though he has a proven system concept, somehow he has to convince potential buyers on the financial benefits of his system while also assuring that all security criteria are satisfied. He needs to better understand the needs of various stakeholders including users, working with regulatory agencies and start using their terminology in expressing system requirements and benefits. This leads him directly to Stakeholder Needs and Requirements. His company will need to quantify the expected ROI for investing in his products.

System Realization is important to understand the broader V&V concerns. Reliability measures on his system performance will need to be demonstrated. He wasn't aware of standard models and measures for system reliability, so he will now ask his staff to develop tests to quantify the current reliability. A form of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) may also be useful for modeling reliability and the system adherence to regulations. They will check the references for more details.

In Systems Engineering Management he recognizes new CM and IM procedures need to be adopted for federal database controls and integrity. Systems Engineering Standards provides important new references that will be used for in-house documents and test cases.

Skimming Part 5: Enabling Systems Engineering, he realizes it is critically important to have the right people for a new systems engineering culture. He should probably hire a systems engineer or two to expand his current engineering department expertise.

In Part 6: Related Disciplines, the topic of [[Security Engineering] stands out. There he finds references for further study in this burgeoning area.

In Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples, he identifies the case study FBI Virtual Case File System Case Study relevant to avoid pitfalls experienced in a application related to private data concerns.

Jose is now better prepared to adapt his processes for new lifecycles and environments, make the business case to potential clients for his technology innovations, the initial morass of agencies is now finite, he make inroads into new markets, and simultaneously strengthen his staff for the long term enterprise.

Vignette: Mechanical Engineer

Cindy Glass is a mechanical engineer with experience in the petroleum industry, primarily working with large oil extraction equipment in the field. Now she is tasked to work with regulation agencies and incorporate systems engineering principles for architecting new oil platforms with broader systems considerations. Furthermore, some of the drilling operations will be done remotely with robots (i.e. unmanned underwater vehicles). Safety has always been a major concern but now cyber security also is, and she is completely new to software system implementation. She realizes there are many more dimensions of system constraints and engineering disciplines to deal with.

She already understands hardware tradeoffs between different types of rigs and drilling materials, but now has to incorporate cyber security and new environmental aspects in her system analysis. xx gives her references for system design with many ilities.

Since she is new to working on software projects and with software engineers, by reading through Ten Things a Systems Engineer Needs to Know about Software Engineering, she is reminded to include security specialists at both the software level and the systems level.

Summary

The SEBoK provides insights and guidance concerning systems engineering principles for other kinds of engineers and related technical disciplines. These engineers will benefit from the knowledge areas highlighted in this use case.

References

Works Cited

None.

Primary References

No primary references have been identified for version 0.75. Please provide any recommendations on primary references in your review.

Additional References

No additional references have been identified for version 0.75. Please provide any recommendations on additional references in your review.

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SEBoK v. 1.9.1 released 30 September 2018

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