A Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of
Knowledge (SEBoK)
III. Competency Development of SE
Practitioners
by
Jack Ring & Paul Componation
Purpose
Competency
development in a System Engineer (SE) serves two purposes. First, it ensures that an individual will
reach their full potential as an SE.
This competency enhances the value of the individual, so they can excel
in the practice of developing and managing systems. Second, an individual's competency enhances the value the
discipline of SE, which is then seen as a value by product development teams,
by the organizations who sponsor those teams, and by the customer to whom the
teams are ultimately responsible.
The SE
Practitioner
Each system
that is developed and managed is unique, so the development of these systems
requires the application of SE both as a science and as an art. The science of SE is based on a unique set
of tools, techniques and methodologies developed by both practitioners and
educators. The art of SE is the ability
to tailor these tools, techniques and methodologies to meet the unique needs of
the individual system. This combination
of science and art is why an engineer practices SE, just as a doctor practices
medicine and an attorney practices law. The need to view SE as a science and an
art is also supported by the increasing complexity and size of modern
systems. This means that SE is most
often performed by multiple participants who overlay tools, techniques and
methods in conjunction with advanced skills in engineering and systems
management to meet the requirements of modern systems.
SE
Competencies
To be
defined as a competency, a set of unique tools, techniques and methodologies
must enable the practitioner to be effective in a wide range of system
development and system management roles.
They must make a significant contribution to a perceived customer
benefit. Finally, although they may not
be unique to SE, an SE practitioner must be able to perform them better than
those from other disciplines.
The set of
SE competencies include the following sets of tools, techniques and
methodologies[1]:
1.
Requirements
Analysis and Management –
How to generate, deploy and manage mission, originating, system, and subsystem
level requirements.
2.
Decision
Analysis –
Simulation, optimization and decision-making techniques to support the
evaluation and selection of alternative system architectures.
3.
Systems
Engineering –
Understanding and application of basic phases of system development and how
those phases interface with the project management process and the system
life-cycle.
4.
Risk
Management –
Methodologies to identify, assess, and mitigate system and process risks.
5.
Modeling – Tools that support the development of
the functional, operational, physical, and interface architectures of systems.
6.
Human
Factors –
Understanding requirements for human-system and human-human interfaces.
7.
Engineering
Management –
Understanding the technical, administrative, budget and scheduling aspects of
effective project management in conjunction with the development of the people
aspect of system development.
8.
Discipline
Oriented Skills –
Development of domain specific skill sets in related technical and managerial
disciplines.
9.
Service – Skills to provide mentoring, research,
teaching, and service to the discipline.
SE
Competency Levels
SE
Competencies span the cognitive domain[2]. The SE cognitive domain involves knowledge
and the application of knowledge about systems engineering. There are six SE competency levels.
1.
Knowledge:
Knowledge consists of the facts, conventions, definitions,
methodologies, procedures and technical terms that define the field of systems
engineering. An SE must be fluent in
systems engineering knowledge, although knowledge by itself is not sufficient
for problem solving. An example of SE knowledge
is being able to list the stages of a system's life cycle.
2.
Comprehension:
Comprehension is the ability to understand the meaning of
knowledge. An SE must be able to take
knowledge, understand it, and communicate it to others. An example of SE comprehension is the
ability to compare and contrast the product development processes between to
different organizations.
3.
Application:
Application is the ability to apply knowledge and comprehension to solve
specific problems. An SE must be able
to solve real world engineering problems.
An example of systems engineering knowledge is determining schedule,
cost and risk variances of an actual project's performance versus planned
performance.
4.
Analysis:
Analysis is the ability to decompose a complex problem into its
component parts, and then solve each of the parts. A key SE skill is the ability to support the analysis of specific
subsystems, components and parts. An
example of a SE analysis would be to evaluate the energy usage for the
components of a specific subsystem to determine if the overall subsystem meets
total power consumption requirements.
5.
Synthesis:
Synthesis is the ability to take individual pieces and combine them into
a new solution. This is a key component
of engineering in general and SE specifically.
An example of SE synthesis is the ability to conduct system-level trade
studies to evaluate the insertion of alternative components into an existing
system architecture.
6.
Evaluation:
The highest level of SE cognitive development is the ability to evaluate
and provide a judgment about a proposed solution, process, design, or
analysis. The evaluation is
comprehensive. At a minimum it looks at
the logic, accuracy, presentation, documentation and logic of the
proposal. An example of an SE evaluation
is to serve as a member of an independent review team assessing a proposed
system design.
SE
Competency Development
A journeymen
SE should strive to develop their knowledge, comprehension and application to
solve systems engineering problems. An
associate SE should expand their skills by adding application and synthesis
skills. A senior SE should possess
evaluation skills in addition to knowledge, comprehension, application and
synthesis (Figure 1).
Competency
development is the means by which a person gains levels of proficiency in
current competencies and broadens their span of competencies. To be proficient at both the art and science
of SE, a practitioner must develop their competencies by combining both
academic and work experience.
At the
journeymen level an SE could be expected to have a bachelors degree in systems
engineering, or a bachelors degree in an engineering or technical area with a
systems engineering certificate. This
would be supplemented with domain specific work experience in their discipline
and experience in journeymen level SE tasks such as requirements definition and
trade studies.
An associate
SE would expand their competencies by adding a masters degree in systems
engineering or advanced courses in SE specific skills. This supplements their increase job
responsibilities as serving as a subsystem or project SE on multiple projects.
A senior SE
would add advanced training and certifications that may include multiple
masters degrees, a doctorate degree, or specific certifications. Significant levels of work experience would
include lead technical and managerial positions in multiple projects and
programs.