Welcome to the PDP & Certification page!

To go to the main INCOSE Certification Page, click here. 

To achieve a Systems Engineering Professional (SEP) Certification, most candidates for ASEP and CSEP take the INCOSE knowledge exam, based on the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook.  The Professional Development Portal (PDP) is one potential website to go to find supporting learning resources about the content in the INCOSE SE Handbook. 

Using the PDP to Provide Background Information when obtaining your SEP Certification

When you study for the INCOSE knowledge exam, you will be studying using the Systems Engineering Handbook v4.  All exam questions come from content in the handbook and map to the INCOSE Certification Learning Objectives, found at (https://www.incose.org/docs/default-source/certification/01-index-core-learning-objectives-screen.pdf?sfvrsn=6c7f91c6_2). 

If there are topics in the Systems Engineering Handbook you want to learn more about,  you can browse the learning resources in the content catalog using the PDP Taxonomy filters on the PDP’s Browsing the Content Catalog page (i.e., filtering the INCOSE Systems Engineering Competency Framework (ISECF), the ISO 15288 Systems Engineering Processes in the Systems Engineering Handbook, the System Engineering Domains used for the International Symposia Call for Papers, and additional other general and attribute systems engineering areas). 

Additionally, when you are working towards your CSEP or ESEP Certification, you will have to describe your experience applying systems engineering.  Whether you are planning your future career path or reflecting on past work, you may want to review learning resources about systems engineering experience areas. You can use the SEP Experience Areas filter to find learning resources on the PDP’s Browsing the Content Catalog page.

The INCOSE SE Handbook is the sole source of content for the knowledge exam.  No other training materials or interpretations have been reviewed or approved by the INCOSE Certification Program.

Certification Training Providers

CERTIFICATION TRAINING PROVIDER DISCLAIMER: “The presence of certification training providers in the Professional Development Portal (PDP) does not represent INCOSE’s endorsement, nor does the absence of any certification training providers known to the user imply they are not endorsed by INCOSE.”  The Certification Program used to maintain a list of training providers, but now that the PDP has been created, the training providers are available in the PDP to offer users information on their programs.

There are two ways to find certification training providers in the PDP:

1. If you know the training provider's name, then go to the PDP Home Page and enter the name in the "Search the PDP Content Catalog" section. 
2. If you do not know the training provider's name and / or want to review all training provider's information that are in the PDP, go to the Browse the Content Catalog page and in the "SE General Topics" filter select "Certification Training."  All training provider opportunities in the PDP will be listed on separate Learning Resource Results Cards for you to review. 

Using the PDP to help renew your SEP Certification

ASEP and CSEP Certifications both must be renewed with 120 Professional Development Units (PDUs) per renewal period.  ASEPs must renew every 5 years while CSEPs must renew every 3 years.  Specific information is available on the Renewing Certification page (https://www.incose.org/systems-engineering-certification/after-certification/renewing-certification).  On that page, there is a link to the “Log of Continuing Education Credits” and the third worksheet in the log lists the Categories, PDU Activities eligible, the Earning Rate, and the Renewal Period Limit.

Activities to increase your professional development knowledge in the PDP can earn PDUs.  Here are the INCOSE Certification PDU activities that can be earned through the PDP:

• Technical Society Participation
  • Attend non-peer-reviewed Professional Technical Society event
  • Attend peer-reviewed Professional Technical Society event
• SE Course Work & Publication
  • Complete a technical graduate level course
  • Attend educational course, tutorial, or seminar
  • Consume SE-related media, including journal article, book, video, or audio. 

On the PDP’s Learning Plan page, PDP users can add information to their Professional Development Completion Form. This form can be downloaded, updated, and saved as a PDF file to send to your manager. This form can also be used to transfer information to the Certification Log of Continuing Education Credits. The following information is requested in the Professional Development Completion Form:

• Name
• Current Professional Development Period (From Date) & (To Date)
• * Activity Type
• * Activity Description
• * Start Date of Activity
• End Date of Activity
• Certification PDU Credits?

The user may mark the “Certification PDU Credits?” column for PDP activities aligned with the Certification PDU list to keep their manager informed some of these apply to their certification renewal.  They can then copy the respective information they have in the columns with the annotated bullets (“*”) to their Log of Continuing Education Credits. 

Here is a link to the PDP & Learning Development Plans Page with the Professional Development Completion Form.