INCOSE WMA Newsletter

May 2010

Upcoming Events
Presidents Word
We are happy to announce that the International
Council on System Engineering has recognized the
Washington Metro Area Chapter as a gold circle June
award chapter based upon its contributions and
accomplishments in 2009. Join us for the first highlight of the engineering
social season! Members and guests are welcome.
CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE WHO MADE Therefore, bring a spouse, significant other or
THIS POSSIBLE! colleague.
Sincerely,

Steven H. Dam Enter the iPad Raffle

INCOSE WMA President
At each of our remaining dinner meetings,
INCOSE WMA will be collecting raffle tickets for
our iPad Raffle at the INCOSE WMA Holiday Party
INSIDE THIS ISSUE in December.* There is no cost to enter, and all
attendees will be given a raffle ticket.
1 Presidents Word

1-2 *Remember you must attend the December

INCOSE Technical Operations (TechOps)
Holiday Party to win the prize.
1 Upcoming Events

INCOSE Technical Operations (TechOps) Standards Initiative

Author: Ken Zemrowski, INCOSE Assistant Director for Standards

INCOSE Technical Operations recently recategorized two working groups (WG) into initiatives to reflect the
characteristic that the area of interest spanned many working groups. In this issue, I will describe the
Standards Initiative (the other being Model Based Systems Engineering).

Unlike the WGs chartered to develop products and help advance systems engineering knowledge, the
Standards Initiative works with established standards bodies to collaborate on the development of
standards and to ensure the alignment of our Systems Engineering Handbook with key international systems
engineering standards. The April 2010 issue of INCOSE Insight provides an overview of the standards bodies
we work with.
continued on page 2
 INCOSE Technical Operations (TechOps)
In this article, I will describe some of the
opportunities for participation available to
INCOSE members. A few INCOSE volunteers serve
as liaisons to specific standards bodies,
participating actively in the development, review,
and balloting of draft standards. In some cases,
our liaisons take on the additional responsibility
of serving as project editor. Although the time
involved in these efforts is voluntary, INCOSE
supports the effort by compensating the liaisons
for travel expenses related to these efforts.
Each industry standard has its own set of
requirements established by the formulating
group (organizations external to INCOSE) in
charge of development or upgrade. Our
participants are able to influence the nature of
the standards by working with the standards
bodies on proposals for new work, as well as
participating through the entire process.
Once a draft standard or technical report is
developed, INCOSE has an opportunity to review
the draft. INCOSE judges the standard against the
requirements established for the standard plus
any other unstated requirements INCOSE deems
relevant. For example, on occasion a draft
standard does not contain specific information
that should belong, according to good practices.
In such a case, INCOSE will provide a comment or
input to the draft standard to this effect.
In many cases, the appointed liaisons have
developed a list of reviewers. In some cases, the
scope of a draft standard falls into the area of
interest of an INCOSE WG, so that WG is asked to
review the document. However, any INCOSE
member can serve as a reviewer.
Simply put, standards reviewers must use good
common sense based on their skills and
experience. Standards review does not include a
list of criteria to judge the draft standard, but
rather identifies data that are missing, wrong, or
extraneous. INCOSE is an external liaison to these
responsible organizations and typically has no
vote in the final disposition of a standard. In ISO,
each country has a single vote regardless of size
or power. INCOSE, as liaison, has no vote; only
influence through persuasive argument or active
participation in the international working group
as a full member.
In order to ensure a representative viewpoint
during the review, INCOSEs Assistant Director for
Technical Reviews has established procedures for
reviewing all types of INCOSE products, as well as
inputs to standards bodies. We will soon be
calling for volunteers to establish key reviewer
groups for each of our standards body
affiliations. These volunteers will be expected to
review drafts and provide comments to the
liaison for that group. In accordance with the
INCOSE technical review procedures, we will also
use a comment disposition team to resolve any
inconsistent recommendations from reviewers
and to ensure that the comments submitted by
INCOSE are consistent with the SE Handbook and
other INCOSE positions. The comment disposition
team will also relieve some of the workload on
the liaisons.
The theme of the April issue of INCOSE Insight is
Reflections on the Technical Engine of INCOSE
(that is, Technical Operations). Regina Griego,
Technical Director, provides an overview of
TechOps; many Assistant Directors also have
articles describing their areas and some of the
working groups.
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