Three Types of Systems Engineering Implementation

INCOSE has been bedeviled by arg uments about the definition of systems engineering. Many defi- nitions have appeared, but the only one that is widely accepted is so broad as to be almost a ta utology. As a result, INCOSE has been unable to answer many ques- tions in a way that most members can accept. This paper claims that systems engineering can be defined in a way that leads to clean answers to many questions. This definition claims that what people have been calling "systems engineering" can be split into three basic implementations or types of systems engi- neering: Discovery, a discipline or specialist type that involves significant analysis, particularly of the prob- lem space; Program Systems Engineering, a coordina- tion or generalist type that emphasizes the solution space and technical and human interfaces; and Ap- proach, a process type that can (and should) be pe r- formed by any engineer. Such a breakout resolves con- troversies and has implications on systems engineering training, research, processes, standards, and promulga- tion.

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