Board of Directors Meeting - Noordwijk
October 2003



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Key Messages from the BoD Meeting in Noordwijk, NL, October 2003

On the basis of a joint proposal from the CAB, TB and MB, the BoD has agreed on INCOSE’s top five initiatives for the forthcoming year.  These were judged to be the most important areas of work for each of the 3 Boards and the intention is that they will be resourced and pursued by the whole SE community as a matter of priority:
  1. Complete the classification of all existing INCOSE products and make them available to members on the web
  2. Implement the Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge and populate it
  3. Complete the INCOSE Technical Vision on the future of Systems Engineering
  4. Revise the Systems Engineering Handbook to Version 3
  5. Implement the Systems Engineering Certification programme

Following on from the successful beta test which was conducted at the IS in Washington, the Certification team have now developed proposals for the implementation of the SE Certification programme and these were considered by the BoD.  There are quite a number of elements to the programme which have to be put in place over and above the test itself, and there are still a number of detailed matters which have to be worked through.  Nonetheless the BoD confirmed its intention to begin the roll out of the Certification programme in 2004.

The Board decided to appoint David Long to fill the remaining term of the INCOSE Director for Communications as from January 2004, at the end of his current term as Chair of the Member Board.  This decision was necessitated by the resignation of the present Director for Communications, Cheryl Atkinson.  Until January, and given the importance of communications and marketing within INCOSE, Bill Miller, the Board’s Secretary, will assume this responsibility and take forward the agenda.

The RFP for the new INCOSE web site was issued in August.  Five proposals were received and two of these have been judged suitable to meet our needs.  The latter stages of the assessment process are currently being completed and we are aiming for final selection of the winning contractor by the end of October, which should then lead to a go live date in Q1/04.

As part of the development of a strategy for SE a document, referred to as INCOSE Perspectives on Engineering 21st Century Systems, has been prepared.  The document has now been placed on the web site at http://www.incose.org/lib/INCOSE-PERSPECTIVES-Oct2003.pdf and we would encourage all members to read it.  The main purpose of this document is to serve as a starting point and input for our effort to develop a more detailed INCOSE “Technical Vision” for Systems Engineering in the coming months.

During their visit to Noordwijk, the BoD visited the European Space Agency site at ESTEC.  The purpose of the visit was to conduct a round table discussion and to exchange views on today’s practice, state of the art, and future perspectives on Systems Engineering.  Presentations were made by representatives from ESA, the European space industry, and the BoD, and we also had a fascinating insight into ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility.  The visit was a great success, and a good deal of common ground was established.  Further discussions will be held in the next few months to identify ways in which ESA and INCOSE can work more closely together.

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Last Updated: 02 December, 2003