Nicole Hutchison

Work in process: A Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE™)

This paper reviews the progress and content of the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) and the Graduate Reference Curriculum for Systems Engineering (GRCSE™) products being developed as part of the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE™) project initiated in September 2009. The version 0.25 of each product was released for limited review in fall 2010; version 0.5 of each product will be released for public review in fall 2011; and final version 1.0 of each product are due out in fall 2012. This paper reviews how these products differ from and build upon existing products, and recounts lessons learned after the first 15 months on the project.

Defining an architecture for the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge

The Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE™) project was originally sponsored by the US Department of Defense (DoD) and managed by the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC). The project produced a baseline Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) and associated Graduate Reference Curriculum for Systems Engineering (GRCSE). The primary aim of this project was to bound, define and document the knowledge related to Systems Engineering (SE) practice to support education, research, professional development and practice. SEBoK version 1.0 was released in 2012 providing a flexible and evolvable organization of SE knowledge and initial baseline content. Since then the BKCASE Editorial Board has continued to update SEBoK content to ensure it is current and relevant with evolving SE knowledge. Additional detail on this is available at www.BKCASE.org. This paper will discuss the development of the SEBoK architecture and how well it achieves this aim. It will outline the ongoing SEBoK update process and discuss what The Board has learnt after 3 years of SEBoK stewardship.

Experiences From Creating the Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) v. 1.0

Abstract Version 1.0 of the Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) was released in September 2012. Seventy authors from around the world working for three years created the SEBoK. This paper discusses twelve factors that were critical to the successful development and on-time release of the SEBoK. The approach taken is elaborated, and lessons learned along the way are highlighted. These experiences and recommendations based on them would be useful to any collaborative research effort that shares one or more of the characteristics of SEBoK development.

Analysis of the References from the Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK)

Abstract Version 1.0 of the Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) was released in September 2012. The SEBoK contained over 1000 articles and almost 700 books as references. 224 of the references were cited as primary references. This paper disaggregates the references by several dimensions. Interesting insights include the most cited references; topics where references are sparse, indicating immaturity of the field; the longitudinal distribution of references; organizations with the most authors cited; and the most active research topics.