Search

This paper demonstrates a method that can be used to analyze the degree to which an organization's systems engineering capabilities meet government‐industry defined systems engineering needs. To demonstrate this process, using universities as the case study, we summarize secondary research completed for nine institutions from various countries that offer systems engineering graduate level programs in the space domain. Next, we select a Masters degree program from three universities, one from each country, and map their space‐based systems engineering courses to the 37 systems engineering capabilities within the 10 systems engineering competencies. These capabilities represent the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that systems engineers are expected to possess and perform as a part of their job. We then review a process for a more detailed mapping of the curriculum to one of four levels of proficiency within each capability, using the Stevens Institute of Technology as the example. The result is a systems engineering competency‐based approach that can be used by universities or companies to compare the “as is” state of their systems engineering capabilities development against a government‐industry defined set of needs to identify and address gaps or opportunities in the curriculum, training, or experience of their students and/or employees. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng

Systems engineering is a critical core competency for successful NASA missions. This monograph summarizes the collective wisdom of some of NASA's best technical minds on the subject. So here the word "we" represents all contributors to this effort: Michael Bay, Bill Gerstenmaier, Mike Griffin, Jack Knight, Wiley Larson, Ken Ledbetter, Gentry Lee, Michael Menzel, Brian Muirhead, John Muratore, Bob Ryan, Mike Ryschkewitsch, Dawn Schaible, Chris Scolese, and Chris Williams. Among them, they have more than 390 years — almost four centuries — of experience in aerospace and systems engineering.

This paper summarises the use of a competency-based approach to assess our university's systems engineering curriculum. Our team selected and validated a systems engineering competency model developed from within the space industry to perform an assessment of our core systems engineering courses. Next, we assessed the level to which a student successfully completing our programme, could potentially 'apply', with minimal guidance, those systems engineering capabilities we defined as critical. We identified the gaps or opportunity areas for improvement in our curriculum and based on these gaps, we developed an initial set of actions for improving our core systems engineering curriculum.