Upcoming Events:

We will run a joint lunch meeting with the International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) in September. The intent is to broaden our network into this adjacent trade group.

Tutorial Held

We reinstated the tutorial series with a pair of events held on June 7th. The two areas covered were "ALogical and Effective Progression for System Architecture and Requirements Engineering Work" presented by Jeff Grady and “Practical Aspects of Systems Modeling with SysML” by Rick Steiner. As the board looks at topics to consider for tutorials we balance the expressed interests of the membership and industry trends with the availability of instructors who can effectively deliver. If you or your company is looking to expand the skill base of the employees, consider letting the chapter know your needs and we may be able to align a tutorial to meet your needs.

The November Mini-Conference

Each year the chapter sponsors a mini conference focused on a particular area or discipline of Systems Engineering. We will issue a call for papers shortly and look for people from outside the region to

attend and provide their inputs.

STEM Event and Grant process. For the past three years we have held a STEM fundraiser on the USS Midway to raise funds for middle school programs in the county. This year we had sponsorship from Care Fusion, Cubic Corporation and SAIC as well as individual contributors. Teachers have already submitted their grant requests for the next school year and we are reviewing those.

IS 2014

Our chapter president, Jim Gottfried, attended and provides the following notes about the symposium. Keynote speakers included:

  • Scott McArthur, Director Sculpture Consulting Ltd
  • Eckard Settelmeyer, VP - AIRBUS Defence and Space
  • Chuck Severance, Clinical Associate Professor University of Michigan

Reflections on the INCOSE International Symposium 2014 (IS2014)

By Jim Gottfried

During the first week of July I had the privilege to represent the San Diego Chapter at IS2014 held in Henderson, NV. It was an interesting, challenging, and educational 4 days. I commend INCOSE for putting on an excellent symposium, particularly considering that INCOSE has no paid personnel except for 3 administrative personnel located here in San Diego. The INCOSE Board and Symposium committee (all volunteers) are to be congratulated and thanked for their excellent work.

The symposium had numerous tracks representing various industries (automotive, biomedical, energy, and ground transportation); science and academics; and a variety of other SE topics in integration, big data, system of systems, system security, and processes and tools. I was particularly impressed by the innovative work by the INCOSE Biomedical and Health Working Group. If you are involved in the medical industry I strongly encourage you to check out the Biomedical Working Group. In general, I was amazed and pleased by the variety and importance of the work being done by many INCOSE working groups. I encourage everyone to see what INCOSE is doing in your particular industry or area of SE interest.

I would like to comment on just a few of the sessions that I attended that I think are applicable to many in our Chapter.

  • SE International Standards and Tools for Very Small Enterprises (VSE) – Check out the new ISO/IEC 29110 SE Standard for VSEs. This standard was written specifically for small entities such as small companies, projects, or teams involving less than 25 people. It is flexible and tailorable and designed to add just the right amount of discipline for small SE efforts. In addition to the standard they are working on frameworks and taxonomies, an assessment guide, and a management and engineering guide.
  • SE for Software Intensive Projects Using Agile Methods – An excellent presentation by representatives from Boeing, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, and Praxis. Key take away is that SE architecture and requirements must evolve along with the software thus requiring a flexible and modular architecture. I am hoping to have Phyllis Marbach from Boeing make a similar presentation to our Chapter in October.
  • Biomedical and Healthcare Industry Panel: Painlessly Evolving the SE Practice – This was an excellent discussion about implementing SE in the healthcare industry. Panel members represented NE Georgia Health System, Bayer AG, Medtronic, MA General Hospital, and GE Healthcare. One of the key messages was a recent report by the Presidential Council of Advisers on Science and Technology – Systems Engineering in Healthcare. This report made 7 significant recommendations. One recommendation was to “Increase technical assistance (for a defined period—3-5 years) to health-care professionals and communities in applying systems approaches.” INCOSE, and SD INCOSE in San Diego, are well positioned to help industry implement this recommendation. INCOSE will be sending a letter to the President stating that we are the leading SE organization in the US and are best positioned to lead and support this initiative.
  • BKCASE one year on. Progress, Plans and Examples of Use – The Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance System Engineering project has created the Guide to SE Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) that is located on the SEBoK wiki, and contains a wealth of system engineering information, examples, and papers. The SEBoK is organized into 7 parts, with a Glossary of Terms and a list of Primary References.
  • Part 1 discusses the SEBoK's scope and structure, including its hierarchy of parts, knowledge areas, and topics. Part 1 also includes a discussion of SEBoK Users and Uses, including a number of use cases giving advice on how different groups of users might navigate and use the SEBoK.
  • Part 2 Systems
  • Part 3 Systems Engineering and Management
  • Part 4 Applications of Systems Engineering
  • Part 5 Enabling Systems Engineering
  • Part 6 Related Disciplines
  • Part 7 Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

Overall, the symposium was well worth attending and I encourage all SD INCOSE members to consider attending next year’s 25th anniversary celebration of INCOSE at IS2015 being held in Seattle, WA.

The proceedings (papers) from IS2014 are posted on the SD INCOSE web site, Take a look at some of them.