A "Colleague" used as a reference, is an associate or fellow worker who is equal or at a higher level in abilities and qualifications "systems engineering wise," and, because of that, can attest to your "systems engineering knowledge” and past experience in successfully performing “systems engineering tasks.”

Part of the process in certifying a candidate as a Systems Engineering Professional is to obtain data from references that the candidate performed the tasks as described in the application. All of the following categories of people should qualify as credible references:

• Supervisors for whom you work and/or who provide your systems engineering performance rating
• Program Managers/Task Leaders for whom you work and/or who provide input for your systems engineering performance rating
• College Professors of Systems Engineering who grade your knowledge and systems engineering performance through classroom assignments and projects at the graduate level
• INCOSE Fellows who are acquainted with your work experience, knowledge, leadership, and contributions to systems engineering
• INCOSE Leadership who are acquainted with your work experience, knowledge, leadership, and contributions to systems engineering
• INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professionals who are acquainted with your work experience, knowledge, leadership, and contributions to systems engineering

A candidate should provide references from a mixture of these categories. Thus, a candidate should limit references to two from any one category. References, who provide information to support a candidate and their reasons for the recommendation, should also submit information on their own work experience, knowledge, leadership, and contributions to systems engineering.