SE Outreach Programme (SEOP) : Help Required

INCOSE UK created the SEOP to direct its engagement, via its members, with Industry, Academia and Government, to raise the profile of the profession through its scarce volunteer resources. To date the Outreach group has some 20 members, the majority from industry, limited academic representation, and no projects, no activities and no working groups.

It is clear that ‘Systems Engineering’ is not sufficiently described to make it a ‘go to’ career even when compared with contemporary specialized engineering careers. We need to be prepared to ‘sell’ Systems Engineering as an exciting, attractive career through inspirational marketing with supporting evidence as to its social, economic, environmental value.

You can help!

1) UK System Engineering Backdrop

The continuing rhetoric of ‘insufficient’ system engineers (by number), system engineers who ‘lack experience’?and a ‘weak pipeline’ of newly qualified systems engineers is still as loud now as it was 10 years ago, and regularly confirmed by our UKAB members. There is clear confirmation that the need for System Engineers is also growing, as many projects have reached levels of complexity that prohibits ‘obvious’ or evolutionary solutions, even for smaller companies.

1.1) Immediate Need for More Systems Engineers

Although it is possible to migrate other engineers to becoming system engineers, in general it is difficult to generate more systems engineers immediately. In fact the demographic suggests that more are reaching retirement than are entering the career/being replenished, so this is a growing crisis. The value of a systems engineer is often judged in 2 measures:

1. ?The experience of the process of systems engineering (from concept to decommissioning)
2. The domain knowledge

Often employers, and Systems Engineers as recruiters, concentrate on domain knowledge rather than process understanding, and so limit opportunities, by only looking from within their own industry. Frequently the more valuable Systems Engineer is the one with diverse experience, beyond the immediate domain, who can challenge the local wisdom.?

1.2) More Experienced Systems Engineers

Systems Engineering is still seen as the province of large defence, infrastructure, space or complex projects requiring significant project management. This is evident by the origin of such Systems Engineering standards from for example US DoD, UK MoD and NASA. It is also supported by the fact that most large projects have insufficient in-house system engineers and rely on engaging with, or even subcontracting, external systems engineering specialists. These facts are substantially borne out by our current INCOSE UK membership demographic. The INCOSE UK Early Careers Forum has been actively engaging its members in growing system engineering process awareness and its application.

1.3) Future Need for More Systems Engineers

In order to address the ‘pipeline’ issue we need to not only encourage, but generate enthusiasm for, systems engineering as a viable and valuable career. Selecting STEM topics at secondary school and having appropriate further education courses for academic study only addresses part of the undersupply, the more significant component is stimulating an interest in systems engineering. The ‘Think Engineer’ publication is currently one attempt at improving this.

2) Defining the Problem

INCOSE UK Outreach would like to help co-ordinate effort to tackle the problems associated with improving the quantity, quality and inspiration of future systems engineers. A typical system Engineering approach, would have us ascertain:

• a definition of the problem
• the scope of the problem
• the stakeholders

Once we have some level of agreement on the problem, or problems, we wish to tackle, we can establish working groups to consider potential concepts and solutions. At this stage we are not looking for information on solutions.

2.1) Call for volunteers

To establish the problem we need representation, from those who understand the need, and with at least some of the skills to either clarify, or explain that need. There must be an identifiable route to value, so we expect members belonging to UKAB companies to be well-represented, but that doesn’t preclude any member from being involved. If you are not already a member of the Outreach group, please register, as doing so will make management of both GDPR and communication easier.

2.2) Who we need

Ideally we need members who can identify with, or relate to, the problem. We need people who are willing to define, and model, the problem; the contexts and scenarios, the stakeholders and their needs.

We require representatives from the major stakeholder groups; industry, academia and government, across as much engineering diversity that we have available. We also need a limited number who are willing to step up and project manage such an endeavour, to organize, manage, chair, record, and author notes from meetings as well as keep focus on the objective.

2.3) The objective

Our first objective should be a clear statement of the problem, in abstract, along with suitable examples of how that abstract be clothed for different applications. This should be material that can be rendered for professional publication, that aspiring system engineers of all ages and walks of engineering can relate to, and be inspired by.

3) How will you benefit as a volunteer

You will have an opportunity to:

• Gain an appreciation of diverse systems engineering applications and system engineers’ views, their industry’s problems of creating relevant system engineers.
• Get an appreciation of what academia delivers and the gap to industry needs, or experience.
• Improve your abstract skills to be able to differentiate between domain specialisation and system process competence.
• Understand how to apply the System Engineering process to define and scope problems.
• Contribute to the messaging required to influence government.
• Have an opportunity to be part of the future construction of solutions, bridging between academia and industry, deriving specific training for domain or process additions.

4) Contact

If you think you can help then please feel free to contact me, with your contact details and a short description of how you would be willing to help,?at [email protected].?