“Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge” (SEBoK) (12 Feb 13)

International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Launches “Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge” (SEBoK)

Moderated Wiki Provides Comprehensive Source of Industry Knowledge, Call for Community Input

SAN DIEGO (February 12, 2013) – INCOSE, a membership organization that promotes systems engineering practice, education and research, has released the “Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge” (SEBoK), a moderated wiki and online resource of industry information, practices and case studies. SEBoK recently won “Product of the Year” at the INCOSE International Workshop held in Jacksonville, Fla. as the INCOSE product that provided the most significant value to its members and the global community.

Practitioners across the numerous domains that utilize systems engineering are encouraged to participate and help build the wiki into an increasingly valuable and wide-ranging tool for all. SEBoK is available at http://www.sebokwiki.org.

“The SEBoK is intended to be the authoritative guide to everything you need to know about systems engineering on one website,” said Dr. Art Pyster, SEBoK editor-in-chief and distinguished research professor in the School of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens Institute of Technology. “Systems engineering is essential to the success of many human endeavors, and as systems increase in scale and complexity, systems engineering is increasingly recognized for its importance.”

The wiki is meant to appeal to a wide variety of users from practicing systems engineers to engineers in other disciplines; educators, researchers and their students; as well as general managers and product customers. Creation of the SEBoK has spanned three years, with contributions from 70 authors from dozens of companies, universities, and government agencies from around the world. Dr. Dave Olwell, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, co-led SEBoK development and is now co-editor-in-chief.

The SEBoK is divided into seven parts and includes more than 100 articles on such topics as emergence, complexity, systems of systems, verification, enterprise systems engineering, and the relationship between systems engineering and software engineering, as well as short case studies and vignettes on the application of systems engineering knowledge, and an extensive glossary of terms and primary references. Navigation through the SEBoK is facilitated by a wide range of features built into the underlying wiki engine.

The SEBoK is jointly managed by INCOSE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – Computer Society (IEEE-CS) and the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC).

The “Product of the Year” award was presented to the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) Project, which developed the SEBoK as well as the Graduate Reference Curriculum for Systems Engineering (GRCSE).