Publication

As the world has evolved over the past half a century, so too has the discipline of Systems Engineering (SE). From one humble beginning at the Bell Telephone Laboratories as the disci- pline responsible for technical planning and control (Kelly, 1950), SE has evolved into an inter- disciplinary approach responsible for the conception and realization of successful complex sys- tems (INCOSE, 2004) across the system life cycle. However, the current standards and bodies of knowledge in SE have not consistently kept up with the evolving nature of the discipline.

A current effort to develop a guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SE- BoK), part of the three-year Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance SE (BKCASETM) project kicked off in the fall of 2009, offers an opportunity to identify and address gaps in SE knowledge and research. This paper addresses findings, research, and decision points reached by the four-dozen member author team during the first year of developing the guide and leverages community feedback to identify gaps in knowledge areas or needed research areas based on a limited review of version 0.25 of the guide, distributed in the fall of 2010.