Individual Systems Engineer

MBSE is an growing dominant approach to systems engineering, in constrast to conventional document-based systems engineering;
MBSE will enable you to perform many if not all systems engineering activities more effectively than you would otherwise do;
MBSE shifts work from involving much drudgery (manual checking, consistency checking...) associated with the document-centric approach to engineering as an intellectual challenge;
systems engineers with MBSE experience are likely to be increasingly marketable than those without.

But for an individual engineer, adopting MBSE has its challenges:

it does require you to 'get your head around a model-based approach';
it will require you to become familiar and proficient with an appropriate modelling notation (such as SysML) and at least one associated tool;
it is unlikley to be an approach that you can adopt solo - an appropriate subset of an organisation (a research group, a project team, a functional department) needs to adopt MBSE as a way of doing business.

Rationale

In recent years there has been a trend for all engineering disciplines to have tools that support the engineering work (design, analysis, visualisation) that use underlying models of the concepts in that domain. For instance, structural design moved from physical draughting drawings, to electronic versions of drawings, then to models of structures that could be re-rendered with plan, elevation views analogous to drawings. However such tools support other capabiliies, for instance, perspective projections of the structures, where the view can be dynamically rotated, assisting understanding. Arguably systems engineering is the last engineering discipline to see this trend to model-based approach adopted. It is becoming clear that model-based systems engineering will be a necessary competency for systems engineers now and into the future.

What does MBSE mean for my role?

For you as an individual systems engineer it means:

Ensuring your involvement and adoption of MBSE aligns with your organisation's strategy; it may mean you follow that strategy, or that you play a key role in defining it...;
Ensure you understand the approach and principles of MBSE;
Browse the various tutorials and documentated case studies available online (see elsewhere in INCOSE UK, and INCOSE.org for links - refine to include links here)
Gain access to at least one of the tools that support MBSE - there are both COTS and open source tools available - and experiment in a sandbox;
Connect to the local community of other MBSE systems engineers, via your organisation and/or INCOSE;
Consider commercially available training for MBSE (note this can be 'badged' as 'SysML for MBSE' or some such;
build up experience incrementally.

Rationale

Aliging what you do as an individual with your organisation's approach is important, since the majority of benefits from MBSE only come from the sharing of common information around a systems model - and possibly other models related to that model. Such sharing could be across 2 or more systems engineers, across systems engineers and other engineering disciplines, or across engineering and non-engineering disciplines (project management, commercial, product support, procurement...).

Becoming proficient in performing systems engineering in a model-based way requires a combination of awareness and education, and practical hands-on use. It also helps greatly to work with others who have either come up the learning curve, or at least are also going up it. Bear in mind that MSBE is still systems engineering!

Where (activity area, disciplines, level of decomp) do I employ MBSE?

(elaborated response)

When (temporal e.g. life cycle phase, criteria), should MBSE be employed?

(elaborated response)

Who else needs to participate in MBSE activities?

A Systems Engineer operates as a member of a team and as such engages with a range of stakeholders to collectively ‘engineer’ a system. Taking an MBSE approach means that these stakeholders also need to participate in MBSE activities associated with their roles and responsibilities. This is important to ensure that the engineering effort is coherent, collectively effective and efficient, to produce a fit-for-purpose engineered system.

Listed below are types of awareness of, or involvement in, MBSE for other Roles that a Systems Engineer may need to be particularly aware of.

Roles that both system engineer and engineering manager may need to be particularly aware of are addressed in the sibling section to Systems Engineer / Engineering Manager (here).

How do I make use of MBSE on my project?

(elaborated response)

Individual Systems Engineer

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