Mission
The mission of the working group is to produce guidance for members of INCOSE on how to embed Systems Engineering into an organization.
The Working group will look at organizations and produce guidance to help ensure that Systems Engineering is done appropriately, in terms of roles, processes, tools, knowledge and interfaces with other disciplines in order that the value from a systems approach can be achieved. Will need to recognize that given the diverse range of domains, solutions produced and organization types (and the wide potential applications of Systems Engineering) there cannot be any single recommended organizational solution.
Scope
The scope of the Working Group is organizations and how best to set them up to do Systems Engineering. This will rely on and use existing descriptions of how Systems Engineering is done or what Systems Engineering is.
The range of organizations in the scope of consideration of the working group covers
- Any domain or solution type, or organization size– all that matters is if the systems approach could be of benefit.
- Any level of existing systems capability – from total unawareness to those doing it explicitly (and even well) who want to get better.
- Varying levels of “cultural” acceptance of the systems approach in principle.
The scope covers how Systems Engineering is done inside the organization and so is not limited to just Systems Engineering activities or simply the role of those called “Systems Engineers” – it will consider how the systems approach is a part of the whole, and so consider the integration with the whole organization, including activities that are often not to be considered engineering activities.
Enterprises are not excluded from the scope – but it was felt organization was a broader term.
The term “embed” is taken to mean making Systems Engineering part of the way the organization works and so not be dependent on a particular individual advocate or expert.
Goals
The goal of the working group is to thoroughly understand the issue of Embedding Systems Engineering into an organization, and how to tailor both the approach and the organizational implementation to suit. This will involve exploring:
- How to determine the level / style of Systems Engineering (and associated description) appropriate to an organization (in any domain / working culture).
- Barriers / resistance / problems inherent in introducing and embedding Systems Engineering into either a team or a whole organization.
- Measurement and assessment of the state of Systems Engineering and so the way to identify the next steps to take, and to validate how well changes have been embedded.
- Advice on implementing changes within the organization.
The WG aims to fill a gap in guidance INCOSE provides. Most of the current material is aimed at the specifics of “Systems Engineering”. The goal of this working group is to go beyond that and provide guidance (to a Systems Engineering advocate / capability owner) on how to achieve the right / most appropriate environment in the organization so that the value of Systems Engineering can be realized.